Nursing Assistant school of faculty of Tropical medicine has been established since February 1970. On that time, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR) faced the major problem of lacking of nursing personal in their health service system. The Director of public health service of Vientiane requested to the SEAMEO for the collaboration of nurse assistant training. Professor Chamlong Harinasuta, the dean of the faculty of tropical medicine and the secretary general of the SEAMEO, on that time, has accepted to train the nurse assistant for Lao PDR. It was only 12 months course which is compatible with the urgent problem in Lao.

The first group of the student consisted 12 students, 8 were from Laos, and 4 were from Thailand. The faculty of tropical medicine has continued and developed this education course for more than 30 years. Now the nursing assistant school is the administrative part under Hospital for Tropical diseases, faculty of tropical medicine. Each year the school is able to accept more than 180 students to train to become the nurse assistant.