By Emily Morin
Late Summer or Fall practicum opportunity with LifeNet International!
LifeNet International is looking for a high quality intern to help us with health outcome metrics. We would request an intern for three months minimum, preferably starting in the late summer or fall of 2014.
Project: Measurement for Health Impact
Location: Bujumbura, Burundi and field work in 43 clinic and hospital partners
Mission: Guided by the belief that every individual deserves an equal opportunity to lead a healthy and whole life, LifeNet improves the quality of health systems from the ground up.
LifeNet’s main activities: packages of services including continuing education for nurses, management capacity building, medicine supply and growth financing.
Problem LifeNet International is assessing: Our current challenge is to develop metrics that will demonstrate the impact of our clinic capacity building program on the health of patients. The Ministry of Health collects a lot of information that is currently not being used at disaggregated levels. LifeNet also collects a lot of data in our partner clinics and is moving towards coaching clinics to collect and use their own data for decision-making. We collect data on typical measures like patient volume and revenues, but even when we can show with confidence that our training and programs increase the quality of care delivered at clinics or increase their sustainability/revenues, we cannot use our data to prove that we are making patients healthier. We know that by implementing what we teach, nurses are resuscitating newborns when they previously did not know how and would watch them die, they are preventing infection, giving non-lethal doses, and many other things that are saving lives and improving the health of patients.
In the first year of operations (2012), we expected to see a 50% increase over the baseline scores, but in fact the first cohort showed an average increase of 100%, or doubled scores. The second cohort showed 50% improvement in the first quarter of participation.
Students would be contributing to this project in several ways: (1) a recommendation of (a) health outcome metric(s) LifeNet can use for operations and marketing that are cost-effective and practical for our team and our budget, and (2) an M&E implementation strategy/plan for its use at LifeNet.
If interested in applying to this internship, please send a resume and cover letter to:
Stefanie Weiland
Executive Director and Burundi Country Director
Looking for a great 2-credit course in Summer I? Consider IH715! Spots are still open!
IH 715: Antiretroviral Program Management & Adherence Issues in Low Resource Settings with Professor Lora Sabin!
(Meets June 17th-26th, Tues/Wed/Thurs, from 2-5:30 pm, for 6 meetings.)
Are you interested in learning more about ART management in low-resource settings?
Some details about the course...
- 6 sessions combining lectures and group work, with each group focusing on a country and soup to nuts planning around retention in care, designing an adherence intervention, estimating cost of full ART scale up, and considering funding implications to do so."
- Guest lecture by an infectious disease MD that provides a close up view of how ART medications work in the body
- Visit to BUMC’s ART clinic to talk to counselors and pharmacists about real life adherence issues right in our neighborhood
Here are some student comments about this course from last summer:
“Great information that's very applicable and relevant”
“I really enjoyed this course and thought it was well paced for a summer course. I learned a lot in a short amount of time without being overly stressed. I thought the use of class time, half lecture and half group work, was very effective. I also liked how we were building the PowerPoint and our final presentation each day.”
“You don't need a lot of prior knowledge in ARV or HIV for this course, which I really liked.”
“Invaluable and essential as I want to work in addressing the global HIV pandemic.”
Weekly BNID job and internship postings
JOB / INTERNSHIP OPENINGS
- Global Programs Intern - Open Learning Exchange (OLE)
- Grants & Communications Intern - Open Learning Exchange (OLE)
- French Translation & Outreach Assistant - Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Two Co-Authors for Textbook Supplements - Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University
- Volunteer Health Advisor Program Coordinator - Cambridge Health Alliance
- Board Opportunities - Boston International
- Monitoring, Evaluation, and Quality Intern - Partners In Health
M&E Quality Improvement intern with Partners in Health in Haiti
Learn more here: MEQ Intern JD
Contact Stephanie Portes at portesstephanie1@gmail.com with inquiries or if you would like to apply.
Student volunteers needed at a global health NGO event this June!
Gretchen Stoddard of the Izumi Foundation is asking for student note takers for a meeting of non-profit global health NGOs in Boston on June 18 and 19. Gretchen is in charge of coordinating this meeting and is looking for student volunteers to take notes during the sessions. This would be a great networking opportunity for students who are in the Boston area this summer! If interested, you can find out more details from Gretchen at stoddard@izumi.org.
New global health event opportunities for spring
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Research Intern position for Medicines for Humanity
Agency Name: Medicines for Humanity
Agency Department (if applicable): Program Services
Title of Position: Research Intern
Address: 800 Hingham Street, Suite 1800, Rockland MA 02370
Website: www.medicinesforhumanity.org
Agency description/mission statement:
Medicines for Humanity (MFH) is a non-profit and non-governmental organization dedicated to reducing child mortality in impoverished communities around the world by collaborating with credible and competent healthcare providers already serving these communities and targeting the most vulnerable children and women. We are currently active in eight countries, four in Africa and four in Latin America and the Caribbean. In 2013, we provided over 338,000 health care services to children under five.
We support and build the capacity of our in-country healthcare partners in order to initiate or expand evidence-based, effective interventions to reduce child mortality and improve child survival. We leverage our extensive and successful project experience in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and Africa and focus on using child survival initiatives with evidence-based effectiveness.
Our projects are designed to increase the number of vulnerable children and mothers that receive maternal and child healthcare, assistance from trained community health workers (CHWs), nutrition services, and clean water and sanitation.
Mission Statement: Our mission is to save the lives of the greatest number of the world’s most vulnerable children with each donated dollar. We work in areas of high child mortality and build the capacity of in-country healthcare providers to implement the most clinically-effective, cost-effective, and sustainable child survival interventions.
Practicum description: (Describe the project(s) related to the practicum)
MFH is dedicated to the use of evidence in program design, implementation, and evaluation. We are in the process of creating a “user-friendly” database of evidence based interventions and services that are proven to reduce child mortality rates. We want this database to be usable by all departments within MFH (program service, development, executive) and helpful in developing proposals, program planning, donor reports, and resource allocation decisions. This practicum would be focused on the creation, application, and maintenance of this database.
Scope of work: (List the student’s responsibilities/duties)
- Review previous research on evidence based interventions and services for reducing child mortality rates (including neo natal mortality rates and infant mortality rates), and restructure according to impact on child mortality rates.
- Conduct additional research and literature review to document all major evidence based interventions and services that reduce child mortality and the level of this reduction with appropriate qualifications.
- Use database to analyze and evaluate projected impact on child mortality rates of interventions currently being used in MFH projects and present to MFH staff; assist program services staff to use database to develop program recommendations.
- Participate in meetings to develop process for writing donor proposals and reports that incorporates research and inclusion of EBIs; assist staff in learning how to effectively use database in creating more effective proposals and reports.
- Participate in meetings to develop process for program evaluation and planning that incorporates database information; assist staff in learning how to effectively utilize database in planning and evaluation.
- Analyze existing research on cost-effectiveness and sustainability of interventions and services in the database and assist in creating an overview document regarding this.
Minimum skills required: (List preferred or required skills, e.g., language, research, knowledge
of statistics or computers, familiarity with particular population, etc.)
- Experience in secondary research
- Ability to work independently
- Strong organizational skills
- Strong skills in Microsoft Office Suite with emphasis on Excel skills
- Strong written and oral communication skills/interpersonal skills
- Fluency in Spanish, French, or Haitian Creole a plus
- Experience in maternal and child health a plus
Estimated start/end date: June 1, 2014 / September 1, 2014
Estimated days/hours: 10-15 hours/week, no specific days required; schedule can be flexible
Application deadline: May 15, 2014
Number of students requested: 1
Is a car necessary? Yes
Stipend: No
To apply: Please send your CV to Amelia Brandt (abrandt@medicinesforhumanity.org)
Country Director in Uganda for Sparks MicroGrants
Check out the job description and directions for how to apply here: Country Director Job Description April 2014
Ice cream social May 5th to hear about Dr. Gill’s and Dr. Fox’s current work at CGHD!
Join CGHD and the BU Crowdfunding Initiative in welcoming two of our faculty, Dr. Matt Fox and Dr. Chris Gill to speak about their upcoming work:
Matt Fox’s project for promoting post-natal care among HIV-positive mothers in South Africa, and
Chris Gill’s novel proposal to use photographs of ears to identify infants in contexts where more high-tech identification techniques aren’t practical.
All students are welcome to join Matt & Chris at an ice-cream social on Monday, May 5 at 2pm in the L Building (Room L109) to learn more about their projects and to celebrate the launch of crowdfunding at BU.
