Closing date: 11 Dec 2015
Physician Educator Position Description
The health of billions of people across the globe is directly influenced by the number of health care professionals in their communities. The dire shortage of 7.2 million physicians and nurses in 83 countries is perpetuated by the scarcity of educators in medical, nursing and other health science schools in many parts of the world. This crisis is particularly severe in Sub-Saharan Africa, which bears 24 percent of the world’s disease burden, but has only three percent of the world’s health care workforce.
The Global Health Service Partnership (GHSP) – a unique collaboration between Seed Global Health and the Peace Corps funded through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – was established to strengthen health education and service delivery by working with partner countries to meet their long-term health care human resource needs. GHSP places volunteer physicians and nurses as faculty for one-year rotations in medical and nursing schools in Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Swaziland to address this persistent shortage of health care professionals.
GHSP Physician Educators are posted overseas as Peace Corps Response Volunteers to teach and work alongside local faculty to expand capacity, strengthen the quality and breadth of education, provide improved health professional development opportunities, and importantly, improve care for patients. Seed Global Health assists in recruitment, selection and ongoing educational and clinical support for the GHSP volunteers and their in-country counterparts.
GHSP Physician Educators are intentionally paired with a partner country counterpart to serve as classroom and clinical educators, as well as care providers. Together with their counterparts GHSP Physician Educators develop or refine locally tailored best practice approaches to medical education and encourage a continuous culture of excellence, responsibility, and accountability in the delivery of health care.
In coordination with partner country faculty, Physician Educators serve as clinical educators and care providers. They promote and encourage a continuous culture of excellence, responsibility, and accountability in the delivery of health care. In partnership with partner country faculty, key volunteer tasks include:
- Providing classroom-based instruction to undergraduate and post-graduate trainees, incorporating curriculum development and student assessment
- Providing formal and informal clinical instruction to students, house staff and other learners emphasizing best practice standards (through Daily Rounds, Grand Rounds, Morbidity and Mortality conferences, and similar means)
- Modeling sound clinical diagnostic and therapeutic bedside practice
- Modeling professional and ethical behavior in all aspects of health care delivery and education
- Enhancing existing clinical training systems and structures by developing and implementing innovative teaching tools
- When applicable, assisting in creating/adapting/implementing improved clinical guidelines and/or treatment protocols, and
- Organizing continuing education programs with host country faculty.
Specialties depend on the needs of partner medical and nursing schools and have included general adult care in internal medicine/critical care, pediatrics, mental health, general surgery, family medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, anesthesia, pathology, and infectious diseases.
Data from the first two classes of GHSP Physician Educators demonstrate that these volunteers have made a significant difference in the quantity, quality and breadth of curricula offerings in both the classroom and clinical setting. Volunteers also report that they extend and refine their own teaching and clinical knowledge and skills. Studies show that educators and clinicians who teach and work abroad gain a heightened sensitivity around appropriate health resource utilization and acquire sharpened clinical acumen while practicing in settings with limited access to state-of-the-art technology. Combined with a heightened awareness of the importance of the social determinants of health GHSP Physician Educators return to their home communities with strengthened clinical and teaching skills ready to make a difference in addressing health disparities in the US.
Benefits to Volunteering
As Peace Corps Response Volunteers, GHSP Physician Educators receive:
- Monthly living stipends,
- Housing at placement sites,
- Transportation to and from country of service,
- Comprehensive medical care,
- Vacation days,
- Readjustment allowance, and
- Professional development allowance.
Seed Financial Assistance
Recognizing that many US health professionals face financial barriers to service, Seed offers the only US loan repayment program for international service. The average American doctor graduates from medical school today with more than $170,000 in educational debt; other applicants may have home mortgages or other obligations that would make a GHSP assignment impossible or difficult to accept. Seed believes that debt should not be a barrier to public service and provides up to $30,000 in needs-based assistance for each year served and as From 2013-2016, Seed has provided $2.5 million in debt assistance as a catalyst for service by physicians and nurses to work in some of the world’s most challenging and most needed settings.
Mandatory Qualifications
- Board eligible or board certified in one of the priority specialties for the current recruitment cycle
- Active license in the United States
- Excellent organizational, communication and writing skills
- Experience providing culturally sensitive and competent high quality care
- Successful candidates will possess the personal maturity and emotional intelligence needed to be successful working under challenging clinical circumstances
- Able to meet licensing criteria and obtain appropriate clinical licenses in the host country (facilitated by Peace Corps and Seed Global Health)
*Note: Applicants will be required to meet licensing criteria and obtain appropriate clinical licenses in the partner country
Desired Qualifications
- Experience in a faculty, teaching or mentoring position in a classroom/clinical setting
- Previous experience working in a developing or resource-limited setting
How to apply:
To learn more and apply to be a GHSP volunteer, please visit: http://seedglobalhealth.org/