Save the Children’s newly established Emergency Health Unit (EHU) is designed to enhance and expand Save the Children’s life-saving work in emergencies, including disease outbreaks, with a focus on frontline healthcare, nutrition and WASH programming. The EHU initiates direct health responses within 3 days of a declared rapid-onset emergency and when needs spike in chronic emergency contexts, creating the space for in-country response teams to focus on longer term response planning and scale-up. Responses are based on Save the Children’s core public health approach, covering the biggest childhood killers. This includes public health mass vaccination campaigns, emergency nutrition programming, ICYF-E, reproductive health, and direct clinical care, including primary and secondary healthcare.
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 (2016-18).
The EHU consists of a central team, based in the UK, and standing EHU response teams who are equipped to deliver response modules. At this point in time, there are two types of EHU response teams: Outpatient/Primary Health Teams and Inpatient Teams. Save the Children US will be managing one of these Primary Health Teams consisting of 7 people, including clinical, WASH and logistics specialists who are able to mobilize responses in line with the outpatient modules. Each EHU Team will deploy 2-3 times per year for a period of 3 months each, enabling a smooth transition to the longer-term response before their departure. Team members working for the SC/US EHU team may be based globally and must be ready to deploy with the team when an emergency strikes.
The Medical Manager/Nurse will manage medical activities of one of the mobile teams, including supervision of clinical staff (Doctor and Midwife), oversight of clinical standard operating procedures, support for emergency preparedness activities, and take responsibility for medical and nursing activities while on deployment. This will include ensuring that mobile team activities integrate in to the Save the Children emergency response as a whole.
Emergency Response: Clinical Management (40%)
- Work with Team Leader and clinical team to conduct rapid assessments to identify medical needs and possible/appropriate interventions;
- Oversee medical activities; including ensuring consultations, treatment, referral and follow up activities follow Save the Children/World Health Organization/Ministry of Health diagnosis and treatment guidelines;
- Supervise nursing and vaccination teams to ensure the maximum use of their skills and their full and effective participation in project site and to monitor the quality of care in the clinic.
- Lead the timely collection and analysis of medical data, including preparation of medical data reporting on daily, weekly, or monthly basis – input into IMPACT system;
- Facilitate and lead weekly medical meeting with national staff sharing the overview of programme activities and receiving feedback;
- Facilitate clear communication with EHU WASH and logistic team to ensure medical activities can be supported;
- Represent Save the Children at health meetings, together with CO Health focal point, as needed;
- Regular communication with CO Health Focal point to ensure synergy and ways of working;
- Review and facilitate all referrals of patients following agreed referral protocols and ensure all referrals are documented and reported and where possible followed up;
- Input together with the Team Leader into the accurate forecasting for budget and award management;
- Ensure patients records and clinic registers are completed according to both Save the Children and Ministry of Health requirements. Ensure use of established reporting formats for data collection, analysis and report on daily & weekly activities to the clinical lead as required and to follow notifiable disease protocols as directed by the clinical lead;
- Ensure accountability activities as per protocol and beneficiary feedback;
- Contribute to donor proposals, and both donor and internal reports;
- Ensure all consultations with patients are in a dignified and appropriate manner in keeping with the standards and principles set out by SC;
- Ensure systems in place to strictly maintain patient confidentiality;
- Support the EHU Doctor with staff health requirements;
Emergency Response: Nursing Activities (40%)
- Support HR with the recruitment of nursing, midwifery, vaccination, and outreach staff, and ensure their clinical orientation and training;
- Oversee (together with WASH) the recruitment, training, and management of outreach and health promotion team;
- Deliver and supervise the delivery of high quality nursing care and medical care in the clinic and adherence to SOPs;
- Ensure rapid nutritional screening and treatment or referral of children and mothers attending OPD;
- Training of clinical staff in the delivery of high quality patient care and management, including triage management and stabilisation of those patients requiring stabilisation and referral;
- Ensuring the safe management and delivery of oral IV and IM medication;
- Overall responsibility for patient data ensuring adherence to SC clinical governance protocol;
- Working with pharmacist to ensure a quality medicine management system; ensuring patient safety, adherence to WHO/MOH protocol, storage, management of controlled drugs;
Vaccination Module
- Delivery of safe vaccination and adherence to SOP;
- Management of adverse reaction;
- Ensuring all staff have accurate case definition and access to referral pathway;
- Co-ordination of patient referral;
- Training of clinical staff in vaccination activities;
- Working with WASH ensuring clean and safe vaccination area including sharp and waste disposal;
- Assisting to prepare appropriate stocks;
- Providing health education and to support outreach health promotion teams with or without the WASH team.
Cholera
- Oversee the nursing and medical activities in the cholera treatment centre or unit;
- Overall responsible for high quality care and management of all patients receiving care in SC, CTU, CTC, or ORP;
- Training and management of national and locally recruited staff to ensure high quality care;
- Accurate data collection procedures in place including, bed status and manage bed occupancy;
- Responsibility for the accurate data collection and circulation using IMPACT;
- Adherence to hygiene and infection control SOP in all clinical areas;
- Working with WASH to develop and deliver training package for hygiene promoters, outreach teams and clinical staff with accurate case identification, referral and community health and hygiene promotion;
- Oversee and facilitate the safe discharge care of patients with correct documentation, information and follow up;
- Develop appropriate referral pathway identifying health structures and local capacity.
Emergency Preparedness (20%)
- Become familiar with the overall content, function and deployment of each module (primary health care, immunization and acute watery diarrhea management);
- Be familiar with organograms and budgets for each scenario;
- Together with the EHU Doctor, develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for required medical activities and community outreach activities related to primary health care mobile services, immunization and management of acute watery diarrhea;
- Identify ongoing training needs and capacity gaps of nursing, vaccination and outreach staff, provide relevant training and supervision as required;
- Lead medical team in e-prep activities, including country scenarios and preparedness plans;
- Support country teams to prepare for emergencies;
- Provide training and assistance in development of emergency preparedness plans;
- Contribute to the creation of effective project plans for the deployment & return phases.
- Minimum 5-7 years’ experience required.
- Requires a professional level of specialized knowledge, technical/functional skills and attention to detail to manage complex tasks, programs or projects.
- Strong experience with humanitarian healthcare, including setting up large scale emergency health programs from scratch, and managing primary health teams and health projects.
- Experience managing assessment teams and designing emergency health responses from scratch.
- Willing to travel up to 80% of the time within 72 hour notice and work in remote and potentially insecure environments.
- Demonstrated ability to work in a multi-cultural environment, and establish harmonious and effective working relationships both within and outside the organization.
- Fluency in English required and additional knowledge of Arabic, French, or Spanish preferred.
Save the Children provides an attractive benefits package including competitive salaries, a matching retirement plan, health and welfare benefits, life insurance, an employee assistance program, generous time off and much more. We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.
Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we are dedicated to ensuring every child has the best chance for success. Our pioneering programs give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. Our advocacy efforts provide a voice for children who cannot speak for themselves. As the leading expert on children, we inspire and achieve lasting impact for millions of the world's most vulnerable girls and boys. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom Save the Children is in contact. All Save the Children Representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of Child Abuse. In addition, it is Save the Children’s policy to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at the risk of any kind of Child Abuse. All Save the Children Representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this commitment and obligation. Any violations of this policy will be treated as a serious issue.