Job Title: Nurse
Educator, Rwanda
Reports to: Co-Directors of Medical
Education and Training in Rwanda / Chief Nursing Officer in Boston
Location: Rwanda
Organizational Profile:
Partners In Health (PIH) is a non-profit organization based
in Boston, Massachusetts, whose mission is to provide a preferential option for
the poor in health care. Through service delivery, training, research, and
advocacy, PIH works globally to bring the benefits of modern science to those
most in need, and to serve as an antidote to despair. PIH currently has
programs in Haiti, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico, Russia, Kazakhstan, Rwanda,
Lesotho, Malawi and Boston.
Background Information:
In 2005, PIH began working in Rwanda at the request of the
Rwandan Ministry of Health (MOH) and in collaboration with the Clinton Health
Access Initiative (CHAI). PIH had an initial mandate to address the burden of
Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) in three rural health districts. However,
the Government of Rwanda and PIH strongly felt that anti-retroviral programs
would only succeed if placed within the context of a comprehensive health care
system. Over the past eight years the MOH-PIH partnership has attempted to build
a rural health care system that extends through all levels of care and
encompasses a wide range of clinical services as well as programs addressing
social determinants of health.
The Department of Medical Education and Training (DMET)
supports PIH in its mission to achieve a preferential option for the poor.
Local IMB and MOH staff deserve the same training and educational opportunities
that health sector workers in United States or Europe enjoy. Rwanda aims to
provide comprehensive and high quality health care by building the capacity of
its work force. This is evident through programs such as the Human Resources
for Health (HRH) program, a multi-year, multi-million dollar initiative, led by
the Rwandan Ministry of Health and the United States Government, that seeks to
build Rwanda’s health education infrastructure in collaboration with top North
American universities supplying full-time specialist faculty to work with their
Rwandan counterparts on all aspects of health education. Allowing Rwandan
health sector workers to pursue their interests and improve their skills will
create a cadre of highly motivated and dedicated public servants, dramatically
improving the quality of care provided to the poorest of the poor.
As the HRH program shows, major training and educational
initiatives aimed at nurses are currently taking place in Rwanda with PIH’s
support. Working closely with district level nurse leaders, a hospital based
skills building program is being developed to support the growing needs of the
inpatient nurses via clinical mentorship, quality improvement, and unit based
skills development. The need to improve the skill-level of nurses at the
district hospital level has been emphasized by the health district leadership.
The Nurse Educator will support the training of district hospital nurses at
PIH-supported sites through a combination of direct mentoring, quality
improvement efforts, protocol development and curriculum development.
General Responsibilities:
- To
support and report to the Co-Directors of Medical Education and Training
in Rwanda and the Chief Nursing Officer in Boston on hospital nurse
training and educational initiatives.
- To
work closely with MOH Partners (Chiefs of Nursing at each district hospital)
to develop a program for nurse leadership, nurse orientation, and clinical
nurse specialization within the hospitals, and to support nurse capacity
building efforts outlined below.
- To
assist in the recruitment, coordination, and integration of various nurse
specialist volunteers coming to Rwanda for short-term stays.
- To
collaborate with the training team in the development of ad-hoc training
curricula for district hospital-based nurses.
- To
regularly mentor district hospital-based nurses during clinical rounds in
the wards.
- To
ensure that appropriate data for hospital-based nurse training and
educational initiatives is collected and to collaborate with the
Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Department to ensure that appropriate
indicators are chosen, updated and measured.
- To
work closely with the Chief of Nurses and DMET to coordinate and implement
the hospital’s nurse training work plan.
- To
ensure the integration of yearly clinical training goals and objectives
for nurses with broader policies from local and national
political/academic leadership, including developing relationship with
national institutions involved in nursing education as part of the Human
Resources for Health (HRH) program and others.
- To
develop partnerships with foreign academic institutions to support nursing
capacity building in collaboration with the Boston-based nursing team.
- To
provide input into the writing of grant proposals to fund further clinical
training of nurses in collaboration with the Boston-based development and
training teams.
- To
provide technical support for development and pilot testing of protocols
and curricula for hospital-based nurses in collaboration with the chief of
nurses, ward nurse “responsables”, IMB curriculum specialist, and the
Boston-based training team.
Requirements:
· RN or NP
with at least 2-3 years post-graduation work experience
· Previous
experience in nurse clinical training and education is required
· Current
experience in a variety of clinical areas including medical surgical nursing
· Previous
experience working in resource-limited settings is required, and previous
experience in Rwandan district hospital setting is strongly preferred
· Previous
experience in unit based education/mentorship is preferred
·
Willingness to live in a rural setting with transport between sites as needed
· Fluency in
French is a plus
· Commitment
to social justice
