Nyaya Health Recruiting Generalist Physician

Brief Job Description
Nyaya Health is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working with communities in Nepal and with the Nepali Ministry of Health to develop healthcare services in the poor, western region of the country. Our mission is two-fold: to establish essential public health services in one of the world’s most underdeveloped areas, and to develop a model program on how to scale-up and manage comprehensive healthcare services in remote, resource-deprived, conflict-affected areas.

We are recruiting a generalist physician with training in surgical obstetrics to work with our current medical director to oversee our clinical service expansion starting in the summer of 2009. This physician will work with our clinical team to further develop our medical and community public health operations in the district. Only those physicians with some surgical training (from either general surgery, OB/GYN, or family practice) should apply. The physician must be comfortable with conducting normal- and assisted-deliveries and cesarean sections in a rural setting where the next referral hospital is 10 hours away by jeep.

Nyaya Health will be evaluating applications on a first-come, first-serve, rolling basis through March 15, 2009 or until the position is filled.

Context
We currently operate an urgent and primary care clinic that currently serves as a major referral hub for a population of 500,000 people in the rural district of Achham, Nepal. Over the next year, we are renovating a long-abandoned government hospital in Bayalpata, with the aim of providing comprehensive emergency obstetric care, surgical, blood transfusion, and inpatient services. The physician would provide direct clinical care and would train Nepali providers from other physicians to midwives to community health workers. Click here to read more about our hospital expansion plans.

Qualifications
A competitive applicant will have completed post-graduate residency training in obstetrics, general surgery, or family practice. S/he must be comfortable with normal deliveries and basic obstetric surgery. S/he would also have some pediatric and orthopedic experience. HIV and TB training is also a plus. The applicant should have an interest in social justice, healthcare for the poor, and rural healthcare. Nepali language skills are strongly desired but not an absolute requirement.

Compensation
Compensation will be between 600 to 1500 USD per month depending upon the applicant’s experience and qualifications, the length of the contract, and provision of educational opportunities and other incentives. All travel and living expenses will be paid for by Nyaya Health. Comprehensive medical insurance will be provided. Although subject to negotiation, the physician will be allowed to spend 30 days each year away from Sanfe. Support for educational and training activities can be provided.

Job Duties
Key duties will include providing surgical care, overseeing public health programs, collaborating with government agencies, training health workers, and managing clinic staff and operations. There will be opportunities eventually to take part in operations research.

Duration of Service
We are looking for a minimum contract of six months and ideally two years of service.

Guidelines
The opportunity is exciting to work with a dynamic team to create health infrastructure in a remote an impoverished place that is currently lacking in any. The physician will shape Nyaya Health’s operations in the way that he or she sees fit, with some guidelines set forth by Nyaya Health. The role of the board of directors is to provide guidance and technical assistance rather than to micromanage. Our basic principles are set forth on our guiding philosophy page.

Living in Achham
Living quarters in Achham are simple but clean with reliable water and electricity, phone service, and internet. Click here for more details about living and working in Achham.

Application
Click here to apply to this position.

Frequently Asked Questions

I am an expatriate physician. What would my role be given Nyaya’s overall objective to develop local capacity?
Nyaya’s aim is to develop sustainable and scalable models for the roll-out of essential medical and public health infrastructure. As such, all our paid employees are currently Nepali health workers. The role of expatriate staff is on building technical capacity, training health workers, and working with permanent staff members on improving clinical quality. In this way, an expatriate physician can make a lasting impact even though they may be an intermediate-term solution. Currently, there are limited options for recruiting surgically-trained physicians from within Nepal. To combat crisis-level maternal mortality rates in a timely manner, Nyaya Health has made the strategic decision to additionally employ an expatriate physician.

Will I really have no surgical back-up?
For much of the year, you will be the only person with surgical training for a population covering 500,000 people; the nearest referral center will be over ten hours away. We will have rotating obstetricians and surgeons to help train you in additional procedures.

Do I need to be fluent in Nepali or Hindi?
Fluency in Nepali or other Sanskrit-based language would certainly make your application stronger. Nepali fluency, however, is not required. Several of our medical staff do speak English and can serve as translators.

What percent of my work time would be clinical in nature?
There will certainly be a mix of clinical versus administrative duties. We maximize any clinical time in a teaching attending capacity. Administrative duties will consist of overseeing pharmaceutical supply chains, staff hiring and firing, and management of public health programs. A likely breakdown would be 75% spent in clinical/training and 25% in administration.

What are the current capacities of the Nyaya Health clinic?
Please read more on this wiki page.

Do you provide additional opportunities for training in conditions that are relevant to our clinic?
We believe strongly that our staff should have access to opportunities for personal and professional growth. We are very flexible and try to accommodate requests for time away from Achham for educational purposes. Our strong telecommunications program offers significant possibilities in tele-education.

Can I bring family with me to Achham?
We will consider this on a case-by-case basis. For the most part, it is unlikely that we would be able to provide your spouse or significant other with paid work. There are certainly possibilities for tele-commuting if your significant other has a virtual office space or otherwise can work remotely with an internet connection. If your significant other does have some relevant skills, we can work with him or her to apply for grant funding to work as a volunteer with Nyaya. Quality childcare and education are not available, although home-schooling is certainly a possibility.

What is Nyaya Health’s governance structure?
Click here to read more about this on our wiki.