Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit (EHU) is designed to enhance and expand Save the Children’s life-saving work in acute emergencies, including disease outbreaks, with a focus on frontline health, nutrition and WASH programming. The EHU initiates direct health response within 72 hours of a declared emergency, creating the space for in-country response teams to focus on longer term response planning and scale-up. Responses will be based on Save the Children’s core public health approach covering the biggest childhood killers, including public health outreach coupled with direct clinical care, and including both primary and secondary health.
EHU programming will increase the early impact of Save the Children responses, saving more children’s lives and increasing donor confidence to raise funds for immediate and longer term work. The EHU aims to reach at least 1.5 million people directly and leverage $100m during the period of Save the Children’s new strategy (2019-21).
The EHU consists of a central team, based in the UK, and standing EHU response teams that are equipped to deliver response modules. Currently, there are two types of EHU response teams: Outpatient/Primary Health Teams and In-Patient Teams. Save the Children US will be managing one Primary Health Team of 7 people, including Doctor, WASH and logistics specialists who are able to mobilize responses in-line with the outpatient modules. Each EHU Team expected to deploy at least 2-3 times per year for up to 3 months each, enabling a smooth transition to the longer term response. Team members working for the SCUS EHU team may be based globally and must be ready to deploy with the team when an emergency strikes.
The EHU Doctor will contribute to the Primary Health Team, including a cholera unit, mobile clinic or vaccination campaign, providing technical leadership for the team and direct clinical care. The EHU Doctor will contribute to country-specific emergency preparedness plans and provide support to training of the response team. During a response, this position will supervise adherence to clinical protocols and work closely with the in-country health lead, Ministry of Public Health, and health cluster, as needed.
Emergency preparedness (20%)
- Maintain state-of-the-art knowledge of disease trends and potential disasters in identified priority counties and regions.
- Maintain working familiarity with the overall content and health system of the identified priority countries including health cluster updates.
- Lead technical component of emergency preparedness visits and support country teams to prepare for emergencies. Providing training and assistance in development of emergency preparedness plans if required by the CO or RO.
Technical Supervision and Clinical Governance (70%)
- Provide technical leadership for emergency health assessments, ensuring assessment findings are documented and analysed, and that all assessments include a specific analysis of children’s needs
- Oversee clinical care of specific modules – OPD, immunization and cholera, in the first phase of an emergency. Ensure medical consultations, treatment, referral and follow up in line with World Health Organization/Ministry of Health diagnosis and treatment guidelines.
- Review and facilitate all referrals of patients following agreed referral protocols and ensure all referrals are documented and reported and where possible followed up.
- Support and oversee basic emergency obstetric and neonatal care ensuring sufficient capacity to meet Minimal Initial Service Package either through direct service delivery or referral pathway.
- Ensure all consultations with patients are confidential, in a dignified and appropriate manner in keeping with the standards and principles set out by Save the Children.
- Ensure patients records and clinic registers are completed according to both Save the Children and Ministry of Public Health requirements. Ensure use of established reporting formats for data collection, analysis and report on daily & weekly activities to the Team Leader.
- Ensure the delivery of health education and promotion activities in close coordination with the WASH Manager.
- Ensure and enforce a system for timely reporting of notifiable diseases as per MOH/WHO protocols.
- Work with medical logistics to ensure strong drug management and to support ongoing drug orders.
- Ensure staff health requirements of teams are met through the support of the country programme or head office.
- Any other tasks as assigned by the Medical manager or EHU Team Leader.
Program implementation, monitoring and accountability (10%)
- In coordination with the Medical Manger, contribute to the recruitment, technical orientation and training of clinical staff.
- Monitor the performance of the EHU through regular HIS review meetings, project reporting systems and direct monitoring visits. Ensure accountability activities as per protocol and beneficiary feedback.
- To contribute to donor proposals, reports.
- Any other tasks as assigned by the EHU Team Leader.
- Strong level of technical and/ or managerial knowledge, skills, and experience to direct the operational activities of a unit or team, or provide technical advice, guidance and management related to various size programs, grants or projects.
- Strong experience in health program management in humanitarian settings, including previous first phase emergency response experience.
- Experience in primary health care, Acute Water Diarrheal management and immunization.
- Experience working in treatment centres/units particularly Cholera Treatment centres, nutrition stabilization centers, Ebola/ haemorrhagic fever and/or other infectious diseases.
- Experience of and commitment to working with or through MOH systems.
- Demonstrated monitoring and evaluation skills.
- Ability to work both in an advisory capacity, and a hands-on implementation capacity.
- Experience of preparing successful funding proposals for donors.
- Excellent communication skills and ability to write clear and well-argued reports.
- Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy.
- A high level of written and spoken English.
- The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
- Commitment to the aims and principles of Save the Children. In particular, a good understanding of the Save the Children’s mandate and child focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support.
Preferred Qualifications
- Strong knowledge of Save the Children systems and ways of working.
- Experience in obstetrics.
- Proficiency in a second language such as Spanish, Arabic, or French.
- Aetna Medical and Dental insurance with a concierge service
- Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account
- Vision Insurance
- Life insurance
- Employee Assistance Program
- Commuter Benefit Program
- Vacation and Sick leave
- Paid holidays
What makes us special!
- Generous Retirement Savings with matching company contributions of up to 8%
- Family Leave – 10 additional days of paid time off for you to use to care for your family members
- Additional Maternity and Paternity Leave – 30 days where parents can take additional paid leave (beyond short-term disability and FMLA) at the birth or adoption of a child during that critical first year!
- Critical Child Illness Leave – We hope you never have to use it, but we will provide an additional 30 days of paid leave per year should your dependent child be faced with a critical illness.
- Pet Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance, Identity Protection, Home, Auto and additional Life insurances
- Summer Fun Fridays – During the summer months, early release at 1:30 pm every other Friday!
- Volunteer Day – One paid day a year to support the causes that matter to you!
- Ergonomic Options – Every employee at our HQ offices has the option of a sitting/standing desk
- Leadership and Employee Development Training, including:
- Our remarkable in-house CORE, Senior Management Development, and Leadership Development Programs
- Language learning opportunities
- Continuous Improvement skill development programs
- Brown Bag information sharing sessions
- Work hard/Play hard! We make sure there’s ample opportunity for fun, engagement, and celebration while you work, such as networking events, March Madness, World Cup, Dodgeball Tournaments, Take Your Child to Work Day, Founder’s Day, and our annual Day of Service