Skilled Birth Attendants at Sydani Group

Position: Nurses/Midwives and Community Health Extension Worker

Background

In line with NPHCDA’s goal to improve maternal, newborn and child health indices in Nigeria, NPHCDA seeks to optimize the availability of Skilled Birth Attendants (SBAs) in selected health facilities through the expanded Midwives Service Scheme (eMSS). This scheme will increase the availability of adequate, well-motivated and quality Nurses/Midwives and Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs) at the Primary Health Care centres in the 36 states plus the Federal Capital territory.
Objective

The objective is to recruit nurses/midwives and CHEWs needed to deliver adequate and quality Minimum Service Package at the primary healthcare level and fast track the efforts of the Government of Nigeria in revitalizing the Primary Health Care centres across the country and the achievement of Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

Eligibility Criteria
The ideal candidate must

• Have a minimum of a diploma in Nursing/ Community Health
• Have at least 3 years of experience in providing reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health plus nutrition (RMNCH+N) services
• Have a valid professional license to practice
• Be at least 18 years old (retired nurses and CHEWs are encouraged to apply)

Responsibilities
The expected responsibilities are highlighted below:
1. Nurses/Midwives
A. Clinical functions
Prenatal

• Provide pre-pregnancy advice on health, including nutrition education
• Provide family planning information and services
• Provide syndromic management of sexually transmitted illnesses (STIs)
• Provide HIV and TB counselling and testing

Antenatal

• Ensure that all pregnant women are identified and access antenatal services.
• Conduct antenatal clinics and provide health education on the importance of ante-natal care and on the danger signs of pregnancy
• Give appropriate doses of tetanus toxoid, IPT and other routine drugs to pregnant women
• Provide HIV and TB counselling and testing
• Provide PMTCT services
• Identify high-risk pregnancies and refer appropriately

Labour

• Manage complications from miscarriages and/or unsafe abortions
• Promptly recognize women in labour
• Manage labour, treat complications, and make appropriate and prompt referrals where necessary.
• Provide appropriate emergency obstetric care for all women who develop complications during childbirth
• Referral of mother and baby for interventions beyond personal technical competence or not possible in the facility setting

Post-natal

• Assist women to successfully initiate breast feeding within 30 minutes of delivery and continue to sustain breast feeding
• Ensure that mothers come for postnatal visit
• Follow up of women for continuum of care and tracking defaulters where necessary
• Work with other team members to ensure appropriate link between clinic staff and community-based service providers.

Newborn and child health services

• Assist women to successfully initiate breast feeding within 30 minutes of delivery and continue to sustain breast feeding
• Provide resuscitative effort to newborns
• Carry out growth monitoring and promotion of children’s health in the community
• Promote infant and child health including participation in the National Program on Immunization and management of childhood malaria
• Supervise immunization of children
• Provide IMCI services
• Manage common childhood illnesses

B. Administrative Functions

• Participate in regular staff meetings for feedback on ongoing activities
• Together with other staff of the facility, liaise with the Ward Development Committee (WDC) to support and maintain all equipment provided to the facility and ensure the drugs and consumables allotted to the health facilities are well managed.
• Participate in the monthly briefing of the ward development committee on their activities and challenges
• Maintain appropriate logistics for drugs and consumables to avoid stock-outs.
• Ensure records of activities of the health facility are kept using all relevant books and forms provided
• Report outbreaks of diseases
• Ensure that all relevant data collected on the PHC Health Management Information System are collated, analyzed and the information used for decision making.
• Carry out all assigned administrative functions, including supervisory functions for CHEWs
• Receive supervision and mentoring from designated officials
• Participate in all statutory meetings and training related to the REWSBA strategy
•  Effectively document all required information and provide statutory reports when due
• Submit joint reports monthly to the LGA PHC department together with the CHEWs in the facility

2. Community Health Extension Workers
A. Outreach/Community health functions

• Carry out advocacy activities for promoting maternal and newborn health in the community
• Educate community members on the importance of antenatal care and the need to seek care promptly
• Identify pregnant women in the community and provide antenatal care
• Work with other members of the PHC team to educate the community on danger signs of pregnancy
• Mentor health workers and Community Resource Persons (CORPs) on midwifery skills
• Ensure that eligible children in the community are immunized
• Conduct community-based growth-monitoring of children under 5
• Conduct home visits to mothers within the first few days of delivery and follow-up on sick children and other clients that visited the clinic
• Follow-up clients that were referred for higher levels of care on their return to the community
• Conduct awareness in the community on nutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, complementary feeding, deworming of children and vitamin supplementation A
• Educate the community on the need for pregnant women and children to sleep under LLINs and the benefit of IPT for pregnant women
• Educate the community on water and environmental sanitation activities

B. Clinical functions

• Triage patients who come to the facility to receive treatment
• Assist the midwives in providing services at the facility
• Manage clients according to standing order
• Assist midwives in taking delivery

C. Administrative

• Ensure that the catchment map of the facility of deployment is available in the facility (to be developed by the facility team and the WDC)
• Compile the profiles of all pregnant women, newborns and under5 children in the community by identifying and registering all the above-mentioned.
• Mobilize and track pregnant women in the community and ensure that they visit the health centers at least four times before their delivery, follow-up with them after delivery and ensure that all under 5 children are fully immunized
• Educate communities on key household practices e.g., hand washing, exclusive breastfeeding, use of long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) etc.
• Register and report births in the community that did not take place at the health center
• Report all cases on maternal and newborn death in the community to the health center
• Report outbreak of diseases
• Ensure that births and deaths in the community are officially registered
• Attend ward development committee meetings
• Supervise and organize meetings with the community resource persons
• Maintain the link between clinic and community resource persons (CORPs) in the community
• Assist in collating, analyzing, and interpreting National Health Management Information System (NHMIS)
• Be accountable to the officer in charge of the supervising facility
• Submit joint reports monthly to the LGA PHC department together with the midwives in the facility

Duration of the contract
One year, with the possibility of funding, subject to state funding