Medecins Sans Frontieres - Australia

As a doctor working for Médecins Sans Frontières your clinical skills will be tested on a daily basis. The contexts in which you work may vary from: responding to a measles epidemic; to assessing medical needs after a natural disaster; to participating in a malaria treatment program that is also researching the level of drug resistance.

While you may be challenged by the lack of diagnostic tools available to you – Médecins Sans Frontières will provide expert technical back up including extensive guidelines and protocols to ensure quality health care delivery.

You will be treating diseases such as malaria, meningitis, typhoid and pneumonia. You may be required to perform minor surgical procedures. Your managerial and administration skills will be called upon as you supervise large teams of local staff. Your resourcefulness will be tested – often you will be the most senior doctor within the team.

Public health issues will be a key component of your daily work life. This may involve participating in education campaigns and talking to community leaders about the use of bed nets to reduce the prevalence of malaria, or you may be responsible for negotiating access to drugs for the community you are serving.

No matter where and what work you are involved in – you will have the opportunity to develop your professional capacities in ways in which you would not have imagined.

Médecins Sans Frontières is interested in recruiting doctors with an all round clinical experience of at least 2 years post graduation. Hospital Residents and Registrars who are experienced/ specialising in obs/gynae, paediatrics, emergency and general medicine, infectious diseases, surgery and anaesthetics would be well suited to Médecins Sans Frontières' positions in its field programs.

Tropical Medicine and Public Health training and /or experience ,and the broad area of expertise of General Practitioners is greatly appreciated by Medecins Sans Frontieres while experience in remote/rural settings is of particularly relevance to Medecins Sans Frontieres.

A point of interest for doctors who are doing, or planning to do a post graduate medical specialty is the possibility of having time in the field accredited to your training course. The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the Royal Australian College of Physicians accredit time in the field in specific situations and under certain criteria. For more details on this contact the relevant college.

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA
Commitment to the aims and values of Médecins Sans Frontières
Experience in supervising, training and managing others
Ability to cope with stress
Ability to work well as a part of a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary team
Ability to organise and prioritise workload and use initiative
Willingness to work in unstable environments
Good command of English
Available to work for a minimum of 6 months
Current and valid registration
Minimum of two years’ experience post-qualification

DESIRABLE CRITERIA
Knowledge of languages, particularly French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic or Russian
Interest and/or experience in international humanitarian rights issues, international relations, anthropology
Previous field experience in a similar role with a non-government organisation
Travel or work experience in indigenous/remote/developing/cross-cultural communities