When Dr. Lan Gien paid a visit to Vietnam last fall, the School of Nursing faculty member brought with her eight boxes of books, and a colleague from the School of Nursing.

The books, about nursing and social work, were snapped up almost as soon as the boxes were opened and the workshops that Drs. Gien and Caroline Porr gave as part of their visit were filled to capacity.

“People really wanted to learn,” said Dr. Gien, an award-winning professor who grew up in Vietnam and left when she was a teenager on a scholarship to study nursing in the United States. She was recently named professor emeritus, a title that recognizes her distinguished career at Memorial's School of Nursing.

Since 2002 Dr. Gien has led a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)–funded project to help reduce poverty in the country of about 90 million people by improving social work and health services.

A key focus of the first phase of the project was to help improve social work education, and establish a degree program in social work.

“When we started in 2002 there were no schools offering social work education in Vietnam. Social services were considered a charity provided by government officials or others with no professional preparation,” said Dr. Gien, who worked with partners in Vietnam and Memorial’s School of Social Work to establish undergraduate social work programs.

“Now there are 48 universities and colleges providing baccalaureate social work programs, and at least 80 people with master’s degrees,” she said. ”Some of them have completed or are working on their PhDs.”

Dr. Gien’s latest visit with Dr. Porr is part of phase two of the project that is aimed at building capacity among social workers and others involved in poverty reduction.

During the first part of their visit to Vietnam, Drs. Gien and Porr developed and delivered a five-day qualitative health research training course at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, in Hanoi for nurses, social workers, graduate social work students and social work educators.

Following their stay in Hanoi, the women travelled 1,500 kilometres to the city of Dalat for a second week of workshops at the Training Centre for Population Health.

The focus for these sessions was mental health and brought together a range of professionals, including ministry of health officials, psychiatrists, medical doctors, nurses, social workers and educators to develop a community-based model of mental health services.

The interdisciplinary approach was new for the group, and one they embraced, said Dr. Porr. Following their two weeks of successful workshops in the country, Drs. Gien and Porr returned to St. John’s, with requests to return for future collaboration.  

“It was such a wonderful experience teaching in another country,” said Dr. Porr. “Vietnam is beautiful and the people are warm and hard-working.”