Health Emergencies Officer - Case Management

Contract

This is a No grade contract. More about No grade contracts.

Background

Purpose of the Position

In the context of the MOH Health Emergencies incident management system, the incumbent will support the district response, coordinate and implement technical activities directed towards public health readiness and response. Specifically, the incumbent will directly contribute to the reduction of case fatality rate and improved clinical outcomes of patients admitted across the main CTUs/CTCs of their assigned district. Further to clinical case management duties, the incumbent will contribute to other preparedness and response activities such as; surveillance of new outbreaks and health emergencies (cholera or other outbreak risk diseases), scale up the implementation of evidence-based interventions, facilitate policy and decision making processes through improved health information coverage, analysis and quality throughout the full cycle of the incident response based on innovative approaches utilizing available and affordable technologies. The incumbent will advise district and national actors on public health issues related to emergency response particularly under case management pillar and liaise with other sectors in providing an effective public health response during the cholera outbreak and other consequent public health emergencies.

Objectives of the post and of the immediate strategic

The mission of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme is to help countries, and to coordinate international action, to prevent, prepare for, detect, rapidly respond to, and recover from outbreaks and emergencies. WHO is supporting the MOH to recruit 40 medical doctors to allow Malawi to effectively respond to the current outbreak and reduce the number of cases and deaths.

Deliverables

Reporting to the Team lead, Incident Manager, the WHO Head of Country Office, respective Regional Office and HQ, the incumbent will work in close collaboration with relevant technical officers at the national level and subnational levels to and in liaison with other relevant units within MOH (Clinical department, Quallity Management Department and PHIM) and at the Ministry of Health (MoH):

1. Prompt deployment to districts affected with cholera outbreaks and or acute events of public health concern. Co-develop guidelines, tools and indicators for effective management of identified cases and for timely disease surveillance in the response.

2. Coordinate and manage case management technical activities and programs in the assigned districts, within the context of the health emergencies programme as per national guidelines.

3. Strengthen the capacities of case management teams in district CTCs or CTUs for the effective and sustained provision of clinical care through training relevant courses on basic emergency critical care or its equivalent, fluid rescuscitation of severely dehydrated cases, Infection Prevention and Care (IPC) and provision of mentorship to district teams.

4. Conduct, in collaboration with other team members, real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data, from a broad range of sources including non-health sectors, for epidemic forecasting and detection.

5. Promote the effective coordination for rapid assessment, surveillance and response activities for epidemic-prone diseases in consultation with MoH, WHO (all levels) and other international health partners including UN agencies and NGOs.

6. Analyse, systematize, and disseminate scientific and evidence-based technical information and knowledge; These will include clinical audit and death audit findings to support the development of corrective actions by the district and promote better clinical care to cholera cases and reduce case fatality rate.

7. Undertake regular field supervision visits to assess and evaluate the implementation of activities in established ORPs in communities and other emergency response and surveillance activities, identify gaps and recommend corrective actions based on key performance indicators.

8. Conduct infection control and case management training for health workers in locations of operations.

9. Provide input to communications and information products (situation reports, Health Cluster bulletins, outbreak bulletins etc.) as required.

10. Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

Qualifications, experience, skills and languages

Qualifications

Essential: University degree in medicine from an accredited/recognized institute.

Desirable: Advanced university degree in public health, post-graduate certification in public health , tropical medicine, database management or health-related training in communicable diseases.

Experience

Essential: At least two (2) years’ related experience at the national or international level in clinical care, epidemiology, the implementation of public health surveillance, outbreak investigation or health emergency response in humanitarian settings.

Desirable: Prior working experience at field level with MoH, WHO, other UN agencies, health cluster partners, NGOs or recognized humanitarian organizations with expertise in disaster and outbreak response.

Use of Language skills:

Essential: Excellent knowledge of English

Desirable: Knowledge of the local language(s)

Other Skills (e.g. IT):

· Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office applications.

· Working knowledge of online data collection applications, statistical analysis packages (Stata, SPSS, etc).

Functional Skills/Knowledge

· Demonstarted knowledge and clinical care skills for trauma, infectious disease including cholera disease or experience providing care to critically ill patients.

· Demonstrated knowledge of public health fieldwork, conducting disease surveillance activities, or other relevant expertise.

· Good interpersonal, oral and written communication skills with fluency in oral and written English

· Good negotiation and diplomatic skills and ability to work in multi-cultural settings and culturally sensitive communities.

· Energetic and able to work and live in insecure and hardship conditions in the field

· Time management and ability to prioritize multiple tasks

· A self-motivated person able to work without close supervision

· Able to work effectively in a diverse team environment

Languages and level required

Essential: Excellent knowledge of written and spoken English is required

WHO Competencies

Teamwork

Respecting and promoting individual and cultural differences

Communication

Building and promoting partnerships across the organization and beyond

Producing results