Nursing students, faculty, and WHA volunteers at Holy Trinity University, Palawan, Philippines.
World Health Ambassador
2025 Philippines & Vietnam Academic Teaching Mission Report
October 31 – November 9, 2025
Executive Summary
October 31 through November 9, 2025
World Health Ambassador (WHA) conducted its inaugural annual Academic Teaching Mission in the Philippines and Vietnam, launching a five-year educational collaboration for 2025–2030. The program is designed to strengthen local health professions education, expand exposure to U.S. medical practices, and build sustainable institutional partnerships. WHA collaborated with Holy Trinity University (HTU) in Palawan and Tra Vinh University (TVU) and affiliated healthcare institutions in Vietnam. More than 400 students, nurses, physicians, faculty members, and healthcare personnel participated across the two countries. Teaching combined in-person instruction with live videoconference lectures by U.S.-based physician specialists, broadening the range of expertise available to local learners.
Mission Purpose and Long-Term Educational Strategy
The 2025 mission was the first annual seminar in a five-year academic initiative extending through 2030. Its principal goals are to:
-
strengthen participating universities’ healthcare teaching programs and curricula;
-
expose nursing and medical students to U.S. clinical concepts, standards, and practices;
-
provide continuing medical education and specialist-level knowledge exchange for physicians, nurses, and faculty;
-
build and sustain professional relationships among educators and healthcare institutions in the United States, Philippines, and Vietnam; and
-
develop durable educational collaboration rather than isolated short-term missions.
Philippines Academic Mission
Holy Trinity University, Palawan
At HTU, WHA physicians and nurses provided foundational medical education for nursing and health-professions students. Lectures supplemented the university curriculum and emphasized bedside assessment, clinical decision-making, patient safety, and multidisciplinary care. The 2025 program expanded earlier WHA teaching activities in Palawan into a more structured, longterm academic partnership.
Educational Equipment Donation
WHA also addressed a major teaching-infrastructure need at HTU. The audiovisual equipment in the university’s main auditorium was outdated and functioning poorly, so WHA donated new audiovisual and sound equipment. A formal turnover ceremony was held on November 8, 2025. The donation supports routine university instruction and future hybrid and international teaching programs.
WHA nurse lecturer Jiana Soriano, RN, teaching at
Holy Trinity University.
Dr. Do with Holy Trinity University leadership at the November 8, 2025 audiovisual equipment turnover.
Vietnam Academic Mission
Tra Vinh University and University Hospital
The Vietnam program brought WHA specialists together with TVU, its School of Medicine and Nursing, and Tra Vinh University Hospital. Activities on November 3–4 included hospital visits, meetings with university and hospital leadership, and multidisciplinary teaching for faculty, physicians, nurses, and students.
Reducing Perioperative Surgical Mortality and Morbidity
The central clinical theme was reducing perioperative surgical mortality and morbidity. Faculty represented general surgery, cardiology, gastroenterology, anesthesiology, pain management, and nursing. Presentations addressed preoperative risk recognition and optimization, intraoperative safety, complication prevention, and postoperative recovery. The multidisciplinary structure reinforced that improved surgical outcomes depend on coordinated care across specialties.
International Faculty Collaboration
Lecturers included traveling WHA specialists, U.S.-based WHA physicians participating virtually, and host university faculty. This format created a two-way professional exchange in which local clinicians could discuss their own care environment while WHA faculty shared perspectives and practices from U.S. healthcare.
WHA lecturers and volunteer team with Tra Vinh University faculty and hospital leaders, Vietnam.
Strengthening Professional and Institutional Partnerships
Vietnam Team Development WHA leadership met with the established WHA Vietnam Dental Team, whose relationship with WHA dates to 2014, to discuss ongoing support and future collaboration. WHA also held an open-house reception for Vietnamese physicians and healthcare professionals interested in helping build a WHA Vietnam medical team.
WHA leadership with members of the WHA Vietnam Dental Team, Vietnam.
Mission Challenges and Lessons
The mission was conducted while two major typhoons, Kalmaegi and Fung-wong, affected the region. Transportation schedules and activities required continuous reassessment, yet the core academic programs proceeded in both countries. The experience reinforced the need for flexible scheduling, strong local partners, and contingency planning for future international missions.
Building a Sustainable Education and Workforce Pipeline
The 2025 mission also laid groundwork for a future Virtual Nursing Assistant Program (VNAP). WHA plans to work with TVU in Vietnam and HTU in the Philippines to provide advanced online medical education and U.S. healthcare training to graduate nurses. Qualified participants may then pursue remote virtual nursing and clinical support roles with U.S. medical facilities and healthcare providers. This model addresses two complementary needs: limited employment opportunities and low wages for many new nursing graduates in the Philippines and Vietnam, and persistent workforce and administrative pressures in U.S. healthcare. Properly trained virtual nurses can support documentation, clinical workflow, care coordination, preventive care, population health, outreach, and communication while allowing on-site clinicians to focus more time on direct patient care.
University Education → Advanced U.S. Healthcare Training →
Virtual Nursing Employment → Continuing Professional Development
2025 Accomplishments at a Glance
-
Launched WHA’s 2025–2030 five-year academic education initiative.
-
Established an annual international seminar model involving WHA, HTU, TVU, and later Palawan State University.
-
Provided education to more than 400 healthcare students and professionals across the Philippines and Vietnam.
-
Implemented a hybrid teaching model combining in-person faculty with live U.S.-based specialist lectures.
-
Delivered multidisciplinary perioperative education at TVU focused on reducing surgical mortality and morbidity.
-
Donated new audiovisual and sound equipment to HTU to strengthen teaching infrastructure. World Health Ambassador | 2025 Academic Teaching Mission Report
-
Expanded WHA’s Vietnam medical and dental network and strengthened Palawan government, university, and professional partnerships.
-
Laid groundwork for the future VNAP educational and employment pathway.
-
Laid groundwork for Scouts of America participation in the 2027 Palawan mission and development of a next-generation volunteer pipeline.
Looking Toward 2026–2030
-
The next phase will build on the 2025 foundation through three connected priorities: continuing annual medical education, developing the virtual nursing education and employment pathway, and expanding future humanitarian field missions and volunteer development.
-
Continue annual academic seminars with HTU, TVU, Palawan State University, and other local partners, with increasing use of specialty, case-based, and virtual education.
-
Develop advanced online training for graduate nurses in U.S. healthcare systems, clinical workflow, documentation, population health, and remote clinical support.
-
Prepare for the 2027 Palawan Medical and Dental Mission, including appropriate logistical participation by Scouts of America members and accompanying parents.
-
Strengthen local faculty, professional networks, and institutional partnerships so that educational and humanitarian benefits continue between field missions.