Ethiopia: Hospital administrator, Ethiopia

Organization: Voluntary Service Overseas
Country: Ethiopia
Closing date: 31 Jul 2013

Volunteer as a hospital manager for 12 months, in Mekelle, Ethiopia

Background

Ethiopia is Africa’s oldest independent country, and is also one of the poorest. Ethiopia has been implementing the Health Sector Development Programme (HSDP) since 2005. There have been encouraging improvements in the coverage and utilization of the services over the periods of implementation; however, there is still a significant gap in terms of access and quality of services provided to the population. There are different factors that contribute to poor health services and high mortality and morbidity rate; one being poor hospital management systems. To address this, the Government of Ethiopia has exerted efforts to tackle the problem of quality of services from different angles and one intervention is improving hospital management systems through reform guidelines. As the hospital administrator you will work within Mekelle University, Ayder Hospital; a Government teaching hospital to support them as they implement the reform guidelines.

What does the role involve?

This placement assists senior management and department leaders to develop action plans to implement reform guidelines, oversee implementation and to troubleshoot any problems that arise. To do this you will:
• oversee the implementation of the Ethiopian Hospital Reform Implementation Guidelines
• mentor and provide supportive supervision to selected hospitals (2-5) for improved implementation of the guidelines
• monitor the guidelines implementation progress based on tools developed for this purpose and provide reports
• organise patient and staff surveys to assess patient and staff satisfaction and identify areas for improvement using relevant tools.

Skills, qualifications and experience required

You’ll have a BA degree or Masters in Management, Hospital Administration, leadership or a related field, and ideally training in healthcare management. You should be able to demonstrate experience of monitoring and evaluation or managing organisational change. You’ll have exceptional organisation, communication, networking and problem solving skills. You’ll work with integrity, a positive attitude and be used to working with confidential information. You’ll have flexibility to work in a resource limited country and motivated to contribute towards the development of national health system.

And the rest….

You will be based in Mekelle, a town nearly 780km from Addis Adaba. It is a large town situated in the northernmost region of Ethiopia, Tigray . It lies at an altitude of 2,200m and so is not malarial. Its fast-growing population is currently in the region of 140,000. Facilities are very good, with an excellent range of shops, cafés and restaurants, and a large and interesting market. We’ll ask you to commit to at least 12 months to make a sustainable contribution to our development goals. In return, we’ll give you comprehensive financial, personal and professional support. Where we’ll provide you with extensive training before your placement, and our financial package includes a local living allowance, return flights, accommodation, insurance and more. When you return to your home country, we’ll support you to resettle.

How to apply:

To find out more about volunteering with VSO or to apply, go to http://www.vsointernational.org/volunteer/ and reference ETH0584/0005/0001 in your application. On average it takes a minimum of 4 months to go through the application process so apply now for departure in 2013.

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