Patient Support Education Counselling (PSEC) at Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF)

Main Purpose

Providing nursing care, treatment, patient education ,counselling and follow-up of patients, according to doctors’ prescriptions, protocols applied in service and universal hygiene standards/precautions, in order to ensure the quality and continuity of care for the targeted population.

Accountabilities

• Knowing, promoting, implementing and following up the universal hygiene standards/ precautions, bio-hazard prevention and infection control, security rules and other protocols and procedures in the medical premises and ensuring high standards of hygiene of his/her working environment. Respecting medical secrets and confidentiality at all times.
• Organizing and carrying out care and treatments according to medical prescriptions, and assisting during consultations, and other medical procedures.
• Active participation in health education of the patient (and family) when necessary.
• As much as possible, develop individual PSEC plan
• Ensuring triage of patients in waiting areas, wards or during emergencies, detecting the priority acute/emergency cases, carrying out first aid care and referring them to the doctor when necessary
• Sending material to be sterilized and recuperates it from sterilization
• Carrying out admission, surveillance and follow-up of patients (i.e. assessment of the evolution of their state of health and the identification of any emergency situation or deterioration
• Carrying and supervising administrative procedures and documents (fill in patient’s files, forms, consumptions, statistics, registers, health files, etc.), ensuring an appropriate written/oral handover, and reporting any problematic situations and cases that may arise. Participating in data collection and keeping doctors/supervisors informed .
• Participating in the department-related pharmacy and medical equipment control and maintenance (quality and its functioning, storage conditions, follow-up of expired drugs inventories, stock takes of medicines and material at every team changeover ensuring no material is taken out of nursing area/wards without prior authorisation, etc.)
• Perform cleaning and minor maintenance for biomedical equipment used. Following the user manual and protocols and alert supervisor in case of malfunctioning.
• Supervising and training nurse-aids, nutritional assistants, cleaners and other related staff under his/her supervision, ensuring teamwork and adherence to all appropriate protocols and procedures

MSF Section/Context Specific Accountabilities

• Rapidly identifies outpatients requiring urgent medical care and provides first aid and urgent referral if needed.
• Take and record vital signs (HR, RR, BP, Temp, Ht, Wt, BMI) of the patients and records this in the files.
• Check capillary blood glucose and urinalysis and record results in the patient files and updates the investigation results .
• Ensure the initial assessment of new patients is done in accordance with MSF guidelines .In NCD care this can be very detailed in the case of new diagnosis.
• Improve on the follow-up of the appointments, specialist referals and diagnostic tests. Provide patients support and education through individual and group sessions.
• Follow-up and adress adherence to medication and any challenges faced by the patient Provide medical and psychosocial support to ensure patients’ compliance and improve the outcome
• Make sure that the patient understands his/her treatment protocol..
• Ensure that the patient’s filing and registration aredone in a timely manner and patients’ files are updated with the relevant information
• Complete the individual data and the data of the cohort in a timely manner
• Working in good collaboration with the Secondary Health Care , Primary Health Care and Outreach teams.
• Ensure development and dissemination of adequate IEC/PSEC tools
• Contribute to the defaulter monitoring and tracing
• Participates upon request in continuous professional development activities like morbidity and mortality reviews and CMEs (continous medical education activities).

Requirements

Education

• Essential recognized nurse diploma. Desirable Bachelor in Science of Nursing.

Experience

• Desirable 2 years of previous experience and previous experience in other NGO’s. MSF experience is an asset.
• Demonstrable experience in supervising and training others in a team setting

Languages

• Local language (Somali) and Mission language (English) essential.

Competences

• Results, teamwork, flexibility, commitment, service

Duration : 12 months fixed term contract (with 3 months’ probation period) renewable based on performance