Study visit in Thailand on the implementation of continuous professional development systems

In healthcare, the difference between a safe system and an unsafe one often comes down to one question: are the right people, with the right skills, being held to the right standards? For Lao PDR, answering that question with confidence has been an ongoing challenge and a recent study visit to Thailand, organised with the support of the Health and nutrition programme, is helping to inform efforts to address it.

In Lao PDR, the Health Professional Council oversees professional standards, licensing and continuing professional development (CPD) for professionals in the sector. Under CPD frameworks, health professionals accumulate credits through ongoing learning activities as a requirement for licence renewal. This system was formally introduced under the Strategy for the Registration and Licensing of Healthcare Professionals in Lao PDR 2016–2025.

While the regulatory framework functions in principle, there is a need to better understand how to operationalise the framework in practice. Healthcare workers at provincial and sub-provincial levels often lack awareness of CPD, have limited access to CPD opportunities, receive unclear guidance on compliance, and have limited visibility into how the system connects to licence renewal.

This gap between policy and practice prompted a study visit to Boromrajonani College of Nursing Udon Thani and Khon Kaen University Faculty of Nursing, Thailand, made possible thanks to the Health and nutrition programme.

The visit offered a practical opportunity to learn from a more mature regulatory system to strengthen institutional capacity. It helped stakeholders understand how three professional groups (nurses and midwives, doctors, and dentists) can navigate Lao PDR’s CPD requirements, and how data about compliance is collected, reported and managed across administrative layers.

This visit allowed for valuable technical exchanges and knowledge sharing, giving Lao delegates clear reference points for strengthening their own system and for developing additional detailed CPD legal frameworks.

Without effective systems for recording, reporting and verifying CPD credits, compliance is difficult to enforce and even harder to track. The study visit provided insights into how Thailand has managed CPD data over time, from an early paper-based reporting system to the digital tools and reporting structures in use today. These systems make compliance visible and verifiable across a large and geographically dispersed health workforce.

Observing Thailand's CPD system operating at regional and provincial health offices offered practical insights into how regulatory frameworks are sustained across different administrative layers. This is precisely the level at which Lao PDR faces its greatest implementation gaps, making these observations particularly valuable.

Finally, this important, two-way dialogue between Lao and Thai professionals helped forge a clearer path forward for the CPD system in the Lao PDR. The discussions allowed key priorities to emerge, which include:

• developing formal legal frameworks and regulations for service fee collection and for the accreditation of institutions, courses and CPD activities;
• establishing standardised procedures for CPD activity approval and reporting;
• clarifying roles and responsibilities among regulatory bodies and training institutions;
• strengthening coordination mechanisms;
• developing more specialised CPD courses tailored to different health professions.

In conclusion, the knowledge and practical experience brought back from Thailand will feed directly into ongoing efforts to strengthen CPD implementation, improve regulatory governance, and contribute to a more transparent, accountable and high-quality health sector in Lao PDR.

The Health and nutrition programme is financed by the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and jointly implemented by the Ministry of Health and LuxDev, the Luxembourg Development Cooperation Agency.