Partners In Health (PIH) Nurse Educator Job Vacancy in Rwanda

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