Health Program Intern (Non-Communicable Diseases and Community Health)

Job Description

IRC Summary:

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home. The IRC’s vision is that the impact of our programs and the influence of our ideas empowers those caught in crisis to make lasting change in their lives.

To support the achievement of this vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence (TE) unit provides technical assistance to IRC’s international program staff working to improve education, economic wellbeing, health, power and safety outcomes for our clients. The Health Technical Unit (HTU) provides technical support to over 30 countries in 6 regions to deliver healthcare services in humanitarian settings around the world, including conflict-affected countries and refugee settings.

Non-communicable diseases (NCD) constitute a large part of our primary health care programs. Management of NCDs in humanitarian settings can be challenging due to limited staff capacity, insufficient access to diagnosis and treatment, limited patient follow-up, and insufficient access to self-care information. At the IRC, we have committed to improving how quality care for NCDs can be improved, including building evidence around what works in low resource settings.

IRC has a history of supporting Community Health Worker (CHW) programming in humanitarian contexts, however there is significant room for greater scale and impact by investing more in community-based approaches and standardizing our approach to community health. CHWs represent a vital pillar of the global public health system, allowing governments and NGOs to address the shortage of skilled health workers, particularly in low-income contexts as well as access issue for remote communities.

Job Overview:

The World Health Organization (WHO) Non-Communicable Diseases Kit (NCDK) was developed by the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO) in 2016. It contains medications, consumables and devices estimated to be sufficient for a catchment population of 10,000 people for a period of three months. The NCDK assessments is South Sudan and Sudan look at the kit utility, and limitations, in order to inform future adaptations and revisions of the NCDK contents and rollout process; and also aim to explore the acceptability by clinic staff and review the NCD knowledge among healthcare workers after the kit has been deployed and staff have been trained.

Community Health Worker programs vary widely between and within cultural and political contexts and implementing organizations. There are many efforts underway at IRC to adapt and improve our CHW programs from task shifting (iCCM, NCD and MHPSS care in the community, community based FP, community based newborn care), low-literacy job aids to the digitization of CHW training and supervision, to the development of data models to predict optimal program design, but we lack a holistic strategy that will allow us to leverage these various opportunities and identify gaps where we should scale up our support.

Key Responsibilities:

NCDK assessment:

· Explore different journal options for publication and prepare the already written report of the South Sudan NCDK assessment into a manuscript for publication in peer reviewed journal.

· Compile and analyze data from the Sudan NCDK assessment and take lead in writing the assessment report in collaboration with the co-investigators as outlined in the assessment protocol.

· Prepare the Sudan NCDK assessment report into a manuscript for publication in a peer reviewed journal.

CHW strategy:

· Review previous work done on developing a CHW strategy and how it feeds into the development of this framework.

· Complete already began work on development of a community health framework based on synthesis of mapping to document key areas for improvements and approaches for standardizing different elements of IRC community health programs- i.e., digital tools, supervision, training etc.

· Develop recommendations and best practices for community health across IRC and develop an approach for rolling these practices out to country programs.

· Develop a holistic vision that articulates the IRC’s overarching CHW strategy.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of the period, the intern will have:

· Improved understanding of rolling out NCD Kits in humanitarian settings

· Improved knowledge of the IRC Community Health Programming.

· Enhanced professional communication skills and capacity to solicit inputs and critical feedback from stakeholders working in different locations and contexts

· Increased ability to apply principles of qualitative/quantitative research (theoretical and practical) in humanitarian settings (preparation, data collection, analysis and dissemination).

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Senior Technical Advisor- Health, Aston Benjamin Atwiine

Working relationships: Health Technical Advisors, technical leads for NCDs, Primary Health Care

Job Requirements:

Education: Currently pursuing a Master’s in Public Health (MHP). Clinical degree (medical, nursing, etc) prior to MPH is highly desired, but not required. Graduate (Master’s) student in public health; Nurse or Medical Doctor

Work Experience: Some work clinical experience in primary health care is preferred, but not required. Experience working/ volunteering in low resource country is preferred, but not required.

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:

· Demonstrated interest in primary health care, specifically non-communicable diseases and community health

· Excellent writing and editing skills

· Excellent organizational skills: the ability to multi-task, learn quickly, and work independently and productively in a fast-paced and detail-oriented environment

· Excellent in excel, Proficient in Microsoft Office Tools.

Language Skills: English fluency required.

Certificates or Licenses: N/A

Working Environment:

· Remote work

· Approximately 10-15 hours per week, unpaid position.

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The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Equality, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.

Qualifications