Revising professional title standards for medical and medical students: What medical students need to know

According to the Ministry of Health , doctors, preventive medicine doctors, and medical assistants are core medical professional positions, accounting for a large number of medical professionals at public medical facilities.

Draft Circular on Regulations on professional title standards for doctors, preventive medicine doctors, and medical assistants based on the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment (2023); amending a number of provisions of the joint circular between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Home Affairs (2025) to overcome practical shortcomings.

Add dentist to the doctor title group

Accordingly, the draft circular still maintains the same groups of titles including senior doctor, main doctor and doctor; senior preventive medicine doctor, main preventive medicine doctor, preventive medicine doctor; medical doctor. However, in each title, there are adjustments to the standards of training and education levels.

Specifically, senior doctors (grade I), code V.08.01.01, require a degree of level II specialist or doctorate in medicine (except preventive medicine and epidemiology); level II specialist or doctorate in dentistry. The old regulation does not have the subject of "level II specialist or doctorate in dentistry".

Level II specialist or doctorate in dentistry is added to the group of doctor titles.

PHOTO: MY QUYEN

If previously it was required to have a certificate of training for senior doctors (grade I), this draft requires "having a certificate of training according to the standards of the professional title of doctor or having a license (certificate) to practice medical examination and treatment".

The draft also removes the regulation that senior doctors must have foreign language proficiency level 4 (B2) or higher according to the 6-level foreign language proficiency framework for Vietnam.

Chief physician (grade II), code: V.08.01.02, requires a degree of graduation from a level I specialist, resident physician, master's degree or higher in a medical field (except for preventive medicine and epidemiology); level I specialist or master's degree or higher in dentistry (not required under old regulations).

This draft also removes the requirement of having a primary doctor training certificate (grade II), replacing it with "having a training certificate according to the professional title standards of a doctor or having a license (certificate) to practice medical examination and treatment", and at the same time removes the requirement of having a foreign language proficiency level 3 (B1) or higher.

For doctors (grade III), code V.08.01.03, need to graduate from a medical group (except for preventive medicine and epidemiology); dentist (not included in the old regulations).

If previously, doctors (grade 3) did not require a doctor training certificate, this draft requires a training certificate according to the professional title standards of doctors, or a license (certificate) to practice medicine. Similarly, the Ministry of Health also removed the regulation requiring a foreign language level 2 (A2) or higher for the title of doctor.

Upgrading the qualifications for the title of physician

Meanwhile, the title of physician has changed significantly compared to the old regulations on training and education levels. In the previous regulations, the standards on training and education levels of the title of physician grade IV, code V.08.03.07 required graduating from intermediate-level physician. The professional title of physician is applied to the salary coefficient of type B civil servants, from salary coefficient 1.86 to salary coefficient 4.06.

However, to match the professional titles of grade IV medical civil servants, the Ministry of Health stipulates that the training level of the grade IV medical doctor title is college-level medical doctor, with salary classification of civil servants A0 (salary coefficient 2.1 to 4.89).

Regarding the title of physician, the Ministry of Health also proposed to remove the regulation of having level 1 foreign language proficiency (A1) and add the requirement of having a license (certificate) to practice general medicine, traditional medicine or having a training certificate according to the professional title standards of physician.

The draft further states that medical officers who have been recruited and appointed as grade IV medical officers with intermediate training qualifications and grade B civil servant salaries before the effective date of this circular must standardize their college training qualifications no later than January 1, 2030. In the case of officers who have a college medical officer qualification, they will be classified as A0 civil servant salaries.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/sua-tieu-chuan-chuc-danh-nghe-nghiep-y-bac-si-sinh-vien-nganh-y-can-biet-18525052214181656.htm