Anesthesiologist (Resident and working in Arabian Gulf)

Anesthesiologist with ICU - Based in Tabarre (Haiti), Bangui (CAR), Rutshuru (Congo), Moissala (Tchad)

About us

Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - bound together by our charter. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organization.

Context

Access to safe surgery and anesthesia in low resource settings remains a significant global health challenge. The greatest need is found among rural and marginalized populations living in low- and middle-income countries where surgery patients are often at higher risk of complications because of underlying, unrecognized medical conditions.

MSF has more than 50 years’ experience of providing surgical care in settings of civil conflict and war, natural disasters, and other humanitarian crises.

Core activities within MSF surgical programs primarily focus on delivering lifesaving and essential surgeries, encompassing trauma, general, orthopedic, and obstetric procedures. These surgical interventions are typically conducted in district-level hospitals, with differing degrees of collaboration with local health authorities, although MSF-managed facilities are also prevalent. Perioperative anesthetic care is an essential component of these services.

A key aspect of MSF's operations involves capacity building in essential surgery and anesthesia care, with a significant emphasis on engaging local healthcare providers.

Accountabilities

• Carry out pre-operative consultations evaluating the risks of operating in collaboration with the surgeon, providing the patient with appropriate information and deciding the type of anesthetics to be used, in order to ensure the best conditions prior to the surgery. Carry-out all anesthesia related activities during surgery to ensure safe, adequate anesthesia.
• Preparing beforehand the drugs, material, and equipment required.
• Administering and maintaining anesthetics following the rules of hygiene and asepsis in force.
• Monitoring patients throughout the intervention.
• Ensure transfer of patients to the recovery room, and full recovery of the patient’s consciousness and setting analgesic protocol
• Advise on Postoperative care in both Intensive Care Unit and wards with the surgeon, including fluid management, oxygenation monitoring and airway care and chest physiotherapy and mobilization, with special focus on patient’s pain relief during the recovering process.
• Implement and supervise hygiene rules, procedures and MSF protocols in OT/recovery, anesthesia material (decontamination, sterilization, storage conditions, etc.) to ensure the safety and protection of patients and staff.
• Supervise the OT pharmacy (drugs orders, inventories, expired drugs) and ensure OT register, consumptions, empty phials of narcotics, ensuring adequate stock is maintained..
• Ensure good functioning and maintenance of OT equipment (oxygen extractor, ventilation, equipment, etc)
• Organize the tasks of personnel under his/her responsibility, and participate and carry-out other team management activities (recruitment, training, performance evaluation, motivation, internal/external communication, etc.), in order to ensure having the appropriate team in terms of size, capabilities and skills.
• Collaborate with other departments in the project (responding to accident & emergency department requests, intervening in support of other services when needed, etc.), and participate in any emergency activity or exploratory mission, in order to support the overall MSF project with his/her expertise and capabilities.
• Ensure proper fulfillment of administrative procedures and documents (fill in of patients files, forms, statistics, data base, etc.), and elaborate regular reporting about results, proceedings and problematic situations and cases, in order to have updated and correct information about the day-to-day activity in the project and support decision-taking.

Requirements

Diploma

• successful completion of basic medical or nursing training, and a specialist diploma in anaesthesia required
• current matriculation in Medical Council/Board

Experience

• medical anaesthetists who complete a comprehensive training program in anaesthesia are eligible for expatriation
• nurse anaesthetists must have two years of experience beyond their training and be able to work autonomously in the administration of all types of anaesthesia

Availability

• 1 Month

Language

• English & French required

Skills

• able to work in multicultural and multi-disciplinary teams, with excellent inter-personal skills

Terms of employment

• Monthly salary is non-negotiable (EURO 1748)
• All logistics are organized by MSF, including flight tickets, visa administration and shared accommodation (including food & housekeeping).
• Initial preparation before your first assignment.
• Security management is handled by an experienced manager in each project location. Each MSF employee must comply with the security rules in place.
• Detailed briefings.
• Psychosocial assistance.
• Coverage, such as medical care and vaccination package, accident insurance, including repatriation.

*More details on MSF Anesthesia*

Anaesthesia services in MSF surgical projects are provided by qualified medical anaesthetists and/or nurse anaesthetists, depending on the regulatory environment of the context, and the specific needs of the project. Both categories of anaesthesia providers are responsible for the safe delivery of pre-operative care, intraoperative and post-operative care. A crucial element of anaesthesia care is also the provision of appropriate pain management in accordance with established MSF protocols. The medical anaesthetist may also serve as a general consultant in resuscitation and critical care for the projects. Both medical and nurse anesthetists often work with national anaesthetists with the goal of improving their skills and capacitance in the safe provision of anaesthesia.

The total number of interventions performed under anaesthesia care in 2021 grew by 9.4% with 40,820 procedures documented for 17,888 patients in 17 established projects and 5 emergency responses centres.The number of anaesthesia procedures performed on children increased by 12.5% in 2021. Children under 15 years of age remain an important population for MSF surgical and anaesthesia services comprising a quarter of all patients for the last four years.

82 anaesthesia providers departed on field assignments in 2021.

Activities

The qualified medical or nurse anaesthetist administers anaesthesia in the operating theatre. The anaesthetist may work alone, in collaboration with national anaesthesia staff, or as an anaesthesia care team of both doctors and nurse anaesthetists. These activities include the following:

provides pre-operative consultations for patients undergoing surgical or diagnostic procedures (prior health history, assessment of surgical and anaesthesia risk factors, conducts in-depth physical examination, secures additional preoperative testing if necessary, etc.), develops anaesthetic care plan based on patient evaluation and surgical procedure;

prepares the equipment then administers the anaesthesia, provides ongoing assessment of the efficiency/safety of the anaesthesia underway, and monitors the patient's vital parameters throughout the procedure;

monitors and delivers post-operative care: Insures safe transfer of the patient to the recovery room and handover to the staff, verifies the adequate recovery of the patient and institutes measures needed for any incident of shock, evaluates pain and initiates a post-operative analgesic treatment protocol, discusses patient management decisions with the doctor in charge of the department;

oversees and/or manages anaesthesia material and medicines, regularly monitors equipment and drug inventories, collaborates with project pharmacists in ordering necessary items, insures adherence to hygiene protocols.

The role of the medical anaesthetist in certain projects is to support the care of patients in intensive care and serve as a general consultant in resuscitation and in complexly ill patients.