Effective immediately the Public Health Department of Médecins Sans Frontières is looking for a:  

Infection Prevention and Control Implementer

100% (with 70% time spent in the field)

Until 31^st of December 2013

The overall purpose of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is to preserve life and alleviate suffering while protecting human dignity and seeking to restore the ability of people to make their own decisions. MSF accomplishes this through the provision of medical aid and a personal commitment to act as witness to events surrounding populations in danger. This work is essentially performed in periods of crisis, when a situation is no longer held in balance and the very survival of a population may be threatened. The underlying basis for realising its objectives is respect for medical ethics, humanistic ideals, human rights and international humanitarian law.

The Public Health Department (PHD) of the MSF Operational Centre Amsterdam (OCA) supports the overall purpose of MSF, providing medical and public health leadership for the organisation. The department is responsible for providing strategic direction and integrated advice on medical and public health issues to the field and headquarters. The PHD plays a key role in developing and maintaining the medical humanitarian identity and image of MSF-OCA, and in continuing to develop and improve intervention strategies so as to be relevant and effective.

The department is made up of a group of generalist Health Advisors (based in Amsterdam and Berlin) and medical and public health specialists (paediatrics, nutrition, water and sanitation, mental health, HIV/TB, etc.) so as to provide expert support in a range of fields. The Manson Unit, a medical unit based in MSF-UK, focuses on support to tuberculosis and epidemiology.

There is currently no central topic holder in OCA for issues falling under the topic of “infection prevention and control” (IPC). We rely on health advisors, medical specialists, and watsan advisors to look into relavant aspects of IPC as part of their field support visits, but don’t specifically prepare them on it or provide tools to help focus their attention. IPC is a cross-cutting theme involving many profiles (across departments). If not addressed correctly it has negative consequences for the quality of care of our patients and the health & safety of our staff. Therefore, we are working to increase the support offered to field teams through implementer visits for 4 to 6 weeks in selected missions.

Position within the organisation

The Infection Prevention and Control Implementer will be line managed by the Head of the Public Health Department in Amsterdam. The IPC Implementer will work closely together with other specialists and generalist health advisors in providing specific support to project countries.

Main objective of the post

• Support implementation, quality improvement, and scaling up of IPC activities in selected projects.
• Support the development of an IPC approach to cover the existing capacities and future needs in the PHD and OCA by identifying needs from their field engagement and suggesting potential direction and solutions.

Key outputs expected:

The IPC implementer will support the operational realisation of field activities within the MSF-OCA strategic framework and safeguard the quality of these interventions. This will include:

1. Improvement quality of IPC measures:

• Make field visits to selected projects as identified with the PHD and at the request of the projects (expected to do 2 to 3 missions in 2012).
• Assess the quality of present IPC activities in visited projects.
• Provide direct support to field staff on implementation of IPC standards, via training, introduction/reinforcement of protocols, use of HIS data for quality monitoring, and establishing an IPC supervision committee.

1. Develepment of IPC approach

• Identify IPC obstacles based on direct observation of issues at field level and from HAs and Specialists in the PHD.
• Identify current tools -- guidelines, protocols, etc (OCA, other sections, and external), and point outdiscrepancies, need for updates, and gaps.
• Give formal feedback to the PHD+ on identified bottlenecks and recommend steps to take us forward – both at HQ and field level.

CANDIDATE CRITERIA

Education and experience:

• Medical professional with specific expertise in infection prevention and control
• Field experience in developing countries is essential, preferably with MSF
• Relevant experience with planning and implementation of IPC quality improvement  in resource poor settings or humanitarian emergencies
• Willingness to travel and work with different field teams and able to spend at least 4 - 6 weeks at a time on field support visits to advise and support projects
• Fluent English essential; French desirable

Capacities and skills:

• Good oral and written communication skills
• A high degree of work autonomy as well as management capacity is required
• Ability to spend up to 70% of time in the field
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capacity

WE OFFER

• A fulltime appointment (based on a 40-hour work week) until the 31^st of December 2013
• A gross monthly field salary in scale B between €1,469.40 and €3,331 depending on relevant professional work experience
• A stimulating, professional working environment in an international organization

More information?

If you are interested in this post and would like additional information, please contact Tammam Aloudat, Head of Public Health department, at +31 (0)20 520 8765.

Application

Please send your letter of application and CV before 30^th of June 2013 to the attention of Ms Jaline Wijkhuizen (Personnel Officer HQ) by email toofficejobs@amsterdam.msf.org mentioning “IPC Specialist” in the subject line. Please also mention where you came across this vacancy.