Global Health Fellows Program II
Quality Improvement (QI) Intern
Office of Health Systems, Bureau for Global Health, United States Agency for International Development
Anticipated timeframe: April 2015 - July 2015: Compensated 16 week internship
Location: Washington, DC/Arlington, VA
INT-P4-043
The Global Health Fellows Program (GHFP-II) is a five year cooperative agreement implemented and managed by the Public Health Institute in partnership with Global Health Corps, GlobeMed, Management Systems International and PYXERA Global. GHFP-II is supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
GHFP-II's goal is to improve the effectiveness of USAID health programs by addressing the Agency's immediate and emerging human capacity needs. The program seeks to accomplish this goal first through the recruitment, placement and support of diverse health professionals at the junior, mid and senior levels. These program participants include fellows, interns, corporate volunteers and Foreign Service National professionals. The program then provides substantial performance management and career development support to participants, including annual working planning assistance, and ensures that professional development opportunities are available.
Looking to the future, GHFP-II also seeks to establish a pool of highly-qualified global health professionals that will ensure the Agency's ongoing technical leadership and effectiveness. This objective is supported by an extensive outreach program that brings global health opportunities and specialized career advice to a diverse range of interested individuals, with a particular focus on those underrepresented in the field of global health.
BACKGROUND:
Since 1990, USAID has supported a series of centrally-managed projects to adapt modern quality improvement (QI) approaches to the needs of USAID-assisted countries. The most recent of this series is the Applying Science to Strengthen and Improve Systems (ASSIST) project, a 5-year, $185 million cooperative agreement awarded in September 2012. ASSIST draws on the experience of earlier projects in this series, as well as state-of-the-art approaches developed in high income countries. Like QI approaches used in the US, ASSIST focuses on helping health systems measurably improve the processes used to implement health care.
Improvement strategies focus on changes in processes, rather than the provision of resources, to bring about better health and development outcomes. A major type of process that often needs improvement is the degree to which providers follow national guidelines for basic services. A review of the results from recent USAID projects in this series specifically focused on provider compliance with such guidelines, and found that the application of modern QI approaches produced impressive levels of improvement across the sample studied.
INTRODUCTION:
The field of QI is growing, and many people would be interested in learning about QI through well-written stories based on actual experiences. However, no detailed descriptions of QI in low-resource settings have been published. Although many health professionals around the world know about good results from QI, few of them know the details of how QI teams do their work.
The QI Intern will be assigned to the Office of Health Systems. S/he will focus on supporting the development of a book of case studies that will be submitted for publication. The book will feature QI case studies from low-resourced countries. The Intern will receive day to day guidance from the Quality Improvement and Human Resources for Health Technical Advisor who will serve as his/her onsite manager.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Gaining a greater understanding of the field of QI and its application in low-resourced countries.
- Gaining experience in supporting the documentation of how QI activities are implemented and how QI Teams function in low-resourced settings.
- Gaining a solid understanding of how QI approaches can be used to strengthen health systems.
- Deepening skills in collaboration and coordination within a complex organizational and implementation structure.
ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Assisting with the review of submitted case studies for inclusion in the case book.
- Providing support to case study submitters on drafting, editing and revising case study submissions, which may include supporting the collection, transcription and interpretation of qualitative data.
- Coordinating logistics of manuscript development process to ensure that manuscript aligns with publisher's submission requirements.
- Providing technical support to authors writing commentary sections of the case book.
- Reviewing, editing, and providing feedback on submitted commentary.
- Participating in technical discussions with the Case Study Review Team and case study authors.
- Ad hoc help with literature reviews related to case book, if required.
- Other tasks or responsibilities may be assigned based on organizational and programming need. and/or the Intern's own interests.
QUALIFICATIONS:
- Currently enrolled master's or other post-bachelor's degree candidate in public health, international development, or a related field; or, completion of such within the past 12 months.
- Strong writing and analytical skills and the ability to work independently.
- Demonstrated experience in working in low-resourced settings, research and analysis, andconducting literature reviews.
- Demonstrated knowledge and experience in one or more of the global health technical areas such as tuberculosis, malaria, HIV/AIDS, and infectious diseases.
- A basic understanding of QI approaches and the field of health systems strengthening in global development.
- US citizenship or US permanent residency required.
COMPENSATION:
$1,680 bi-weekly (exempt, salaried position).
TO APPLY:
Detailed information, including an online application and instructions, is available on our website at www.ghfp.net. All applications must be submitted by Monday, February 9, 2015 at 5:00 pm eastern time.
