Head Nurse

Requisition ID: req49692

Job Title: Head Nurse

Sector: Health

Employment Category: Regular

Employment Type: Full-Time

Open to Expatriates: Not Applicable

Location: Kibondo, Tanzania

Work Arrangement:

Job Description

Background/IRC Summary:

Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to serious humanitarian crises around the world and helps victims to survive and rebuild their lives.

For over half a century, Tanzania has been a country of asylum, hosting one of the largest refugee populations in Africa.  Currently, the country hosts approximately 287,903 Burundian and Congolese refugees, many of whom arrived in 2015 as the crisis in Burundi increased. To date, refugees continue to co-exist with the host communities in Kigoma region expressing multiple reasons and needs. Within this context, IRC provides protection and basic assistance in the areas of Safety (comprises of Protection and Rule of Law, Women Protection and Empowerment, and Child Protection), Health (mental health and psychosocial support services and reproductive health), and Education.

Job Overview:

The Head Nurse is a senior member of the IRC health team, responsible for coordinating and overseeing the implementation of IRC’s Primary healthcare activities in Nduta Camp. They will ensure the provision of high-quality primary healthcare services, including child health and sexual and reproductive healthcare services.

Under the direction of the Clinical Officer and in collaboration with other healthcare staff, the Head Nurse is responsible for the supervision and delivery of essential nursing care and, in particular:

• Oversee and apply nursing knowledge and skills in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of primary healthcare issues, ensuring appropriate patient follow-up and referral as needed.
• Facilitate health promotion and counseling for patients and caregivers.
• Ensure that primary healthcare services are implemented following relevant Ministry of health or international guidelines.
• Supervise and ensure timely and accurate recording of patient information and consultations in relevant patient registers and facilitate the timely submission of required health reports.

Major Responsibilities: Key Areas

Clinical Supervision:

• Supervise RCH nurses and direct clinical care, working closely with the health facility/mobile team clinical staff to ensure high-quality comprehensive primary healthcare services.
• Supervise and participate in the triage, screening, and assessment of patients.
• Oversee the provision of outpatient treatment, ensuring medications are administered as prescribed by the Clinical Officer/ Medical Doctor.
• Facilitate hygiene promotion, health education, and patient/caregiver counseling.
• Ensure adherence to infection prevention and control measures.
• Monitor the accurate recording of information in the clinic registers, and the timely completion of summary reports.
• Ensure wards/clinic areas are appropriately stocked with essential equipment and supplies.
• Supervise and conduct night/day duties as per duty roaster.
• Ensure patient confidentiality is respected, and that all consultations are conducted in a dignified and respectful manner.

Team Management & Development:

• Foster open and professional relationships with team members, encouraging a robust team spirit and providing mentorship to help staff succeed in their roles.
• Provide nursing leadership and mentorship to other health facility/mobile clinic staff, offering on-the-job training where needed.

Project Management:

• Coordinate outreach activities with the rest of the team to reach “hard to reach” and vulnerable beneficiaries to increase service utilization.
• Work with and support community volunteers to provide health promotion, community mobilization, and awareness-raising.
• Supervise regular inventory and consumption tracking of medical drugs and supplies.
• Work with relevant staff to ensure timely requesting of medical drugs and supplies.

Coordination & Representation:

• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with local communities, local government agencies, and other implementing partners.
• Represent the program in meetings with local communities and local partner meetings.

Monitoring & Reporting:

• Ensure all patient consultations are documented and patient records completed.
• Oversee the submission of weekly/monthly/quarterly reports in a timely manner.

Other Duties:

• Continually assess the safety and security of the team, promptly reporting concerns or incidents to IRC management, and liaise with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/improve the security environment for IRC programs.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the supervisor to enable and develop IRC programs.

Key Working Relationships:

• Position Reports to: Snr. Health Manager
• Position directly supervises: All Nurses
• Other Internal and/or external contacts

Qualifications

• Qualified Nurse with a Nursing Degree.
• Registered with local Nursing Council.
• At least 5 years of clinical nursing experience in primary healthcare, including at least 2 years in a supervisory role.
• Previous experience and training in sexual gender-based violence and clinical care for sexual assault survivors (desirable). Women are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Leadership skills to supervise, train, and facilitate nursing staff and community health workers in their respective tasks.
• Ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with the local health representatives.
• Skills to provide sensitive and appropriate medical counseling.
• Excellent communication skills, proficient in spoken and written English.
• A teammate with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work under pressure in a stressful environment, displaying patience, compassion, and diplomacy.
• Ability to be innovative, flexible, adaptive, and willingness to work out of hours, sometimes throughout the night.
• Ability to live in challenging conditions and work in difficult, fast-paced situations.

Demonstrated Skills and Proficiencies

• Oversees basic nursing care.
• Coordinates outreach activities.
• Facilitates patient/caregiver health promotion and counseling.
• Ensures weekly/monthly/quarterly data collection, compilation, and report submission.
• Ensures health facilities are clean and meet infection prevention and control standards.

Language: English and Swahili

Working Environment: Security level yellow – The situation in most of the country is calm. Some parts of Kigoma region experience insecurity-highway banditry.

Partnership: The IRC is committed to working with partners as our preferred operating model and adhering to our six partnership principles: equality, complementarity, mutuality, solidarity, results orientation, and humility.

Commitment to Client Responsiveness: By committing to Client-Centered Programming, at the IRC Tanzania, we place the people we serve – our clients – at the center of our programming and services. The IRC Tanzania Staff have an important role to play in supporting the implementation of client-responsive programming through raising awareness to the community and clients about the existing feedback mechanisms and how to use them including the response processes, access, and eligibility to services, and contribute to building an institutional culture that prompts staff to listen to clients and to communicate and respond to their requests, feedback, and complaints.

Professional Standards: The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, 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. 

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusivity: IRC is committed to building a diverse organization and a climate of inclusivity.  We strongly encourage applications from candidates who can demonstrate that they can contribute to this goal. 

IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC considers all applicants based on merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, age, marital status, veteran status or disability. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform crucial job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment.