Anesthesist in Papua New Guinea

Anesthesist in Papua New Guinea
Location: Tari| Duration: 9 months | Startdate: June 2017

About VSO
VSO is the world's leading independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. Our high-impact approach brings people together to share skills, build capabilities, promote international understanding and action to change lives and make the world a fairer place.

Role overview
Healthcare workers in the provincial hospitals located in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (PNG), a region in PNG known for the high incidence of gender based violence (GBV) and tribal fights, see injuries related to either transport or violence on a day-to-day base.
Hospitals report high admissions of patients with lacerations, abscesses, blunt soft tissue injuries and fractures or dislocations. According to the National Health Plan, injuries account for 8% of total admissions and 11% of the total burden of disease in the country. Many of the injuries reported are believed to be either transport or violence related .
Hela provincial hospital, Hela province, is one of the hospitals in the highlands region that provides surgical care on a day-to-day basis. The surgical ward, consisting of 40 beds, sees around 130 patients a month. Due to the lack of local capacity in medical specialist services such as obstetrics and gynaecology, general surgery and anaesthesiology, hospitals are reliant on outside partners or the international recruitment of medical specialists.
Being located in one the most volatile provinces in PNG the Hela provincial hospital has seen support from different stakeholders, such as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). Operating in Hela hospital since 2007, MSF has delivered services in the areas of family and sexual violence services, obstetrics and gynaecology, surgical consultation and anaesthesiology support.

You will responsible for:
- Delivering quality perioperative care in emergency surgery (predominantly trauma and emergency obstetric interventions) and with this providing clinical supervision and anaesthetic pre-assessment of patients.
- Developing an anaesthetic plan and the administration of anaesthetics (general anaesthesia, sedation and regional anaesthesia)
- Providing support the local staff in the provision of comprehensive emergency surgery care
- Assisting in the development of surgical programming, implementation of national and international standards where needed
- Providing on-the-job training to hospital staff and healthcare students
- Forecasting medical supply needs and managing medical stocks
- Along with the OR case team, participating and leading in preoperative, intra operative and post-operative assessments and procedures
- Leading the recovery room, providing care for patients immediately after surgery
- Providing advice to hospital management on policy matters on standards of care and improvement programmes.

If you are looking for a placement in which you can directly contribute to an improved health status of men, women and children, and you fit the below profile, do not hesitate to apply.
- Medical degree with post graduate qualification (certification) in anaesthetics/anaesthesiology and intensive care (Basic Certificate of Competency in Anaesthesia or equivalent)
- Valid medical license
- You have experience in advanced resuscitation training (ALS or equivalent)
- You have a minimum of three months' experience of intensive care medicine and are able to perform advanced resuscitation techniques
- You are competent to give general anaesthesia and spinal anaesthesia without supervision
- You have proven experience in emergency surgical care and ability to work under stress
- You have experience in training, coaching and supervision
Additional requirements:

- Fluent English proficiency
- IT skills (Word, PowerPoint and Excel)

Allowance and accommodation
All volunteers have an allowance paid in local currency. The allowance meets reasonable living expenses in country, but will not be enough to send money home.
VSO works with some of the poorest communities in the world which means accommodation varies and will be basic but meet VSO standards in terms of security and facilities.

How to apply
If you're interested in applying for this role, please download the full jobdescription here or contact us by email or phone: info@vso.nl or (0)30 2320600.