Nurse Mentor, Sierra Leone

Who We Are
Mercy Ships is a global faith-based charity that uses hospital ships to bring life-changing surgeries and transformational medical training to people in some of the most challenging contexts along the African coast. For over 40 years, Mercy Ships has been delivering lasting hope and healing through safe surgical care, while working alongside partners and stakeholders to strengthen local healthcare systems in more than 55 countries. Since the inception of this dream by founders Don and Deyon Stephens in 1978, Mercy Ships has served more than 2.7 million direct beneficiaries without regard for race, gender, or religion.

Do you have a heart for the hurting and a desire to invest your talents and experiences into a mission with eternal significance? For every transformative surgery that takes place onboard one of our Mercy Ships, there are dozens of men and women being used of the Lord to prepare the way through their vocational gifts and talents!

This full-time, on-site position located in Sierra Leone. 

Mercy Ships is seeking an experienced Nurse Mentor for its work in Sierra Leone. They will develop and deliver nurse mentoring projects, in the surgical ward and/or the operating rooms, at a partner country teaching hospital. Develops and maintains strong relationships with partner country partners, providers, and government officials. This role works to enhance the partner country’s surgical system through mentoring, training, and quality improvement projects at targeted facilities, together with the existing multidisciplinary team from those facilities. The focus is on the facility and sustained system-level changes to the surgical system at the targeted facility. This role could include providing direct patient care, depending on the facility, country, and objectives of the project.  This is a full-time in-country role.  

How You Will Contribute:

• Develop, coordinate, and maintain clear lines of communication between partner country partners,  hospitals, ship departments and the ETA team.
• Develop relationships with national partners, healthcare agencies, and other national or international Non-Government Organizations.
• Contribute to the development, design and review of relevant ETA projects in the designated hospital(s).
• Maintain records and perform evaluations as necessary, of all training projects and donations, as directed by the ETA Director (In-Country). 
  Document processes related to project delivery to increase the effectiveness of future projects. 
• Prepare internal and final reports on ETA projects in conjunction with the ETA Director (In-Country) and International Programs in a timely manner.  
• Participate in communications activities designed to promote the ETA portfolio of work among Mercy Ships’ stakeholders and supporters.  
• Assist management in receiving business guests at Mercy Ships functions and receptions. 
• Due to the ever-changing staffing levels and field service rotations, all staff may be reassigned to temporarily fill roles in other departments in a time of need.

Nurse mentoring project:  
This role is part of a long-term, in-country project. 

• Adhere to strategic and educational directives from the ETA Director (In-Country) and Senior Director for ETA.  
• Work alongside mentoring participants from the partner country and identify their learning needs and objectives. 
• Collaborate with hospital leaders and other key stakeholders, capable of influencing change, to support the planning and implementation of contextually and culturally appropriate activities, to improve the quality of surgical and anesthesia care at the facility. 
• Work alongside the partner country hospital teams to implement quality improvement projects that lead to sustainable implementation of learning and improved outcomes. 
• Deliver up-to-date, culturally and environmentally sensitive, and relevant teaching and simulation that encourages participants to deliver best practices in their environment. 
• Support integration of learning from ETA courses and on-ship skills sharing into the partner country hospital context, specifically into policy and process. 
• Work with the ship team to select participants for on-ship skills sharing, as relevant. 
• Collaborate with program partners to ensure alignment between different educational interventions for nurses.
• Collaborate with Program Design, Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, and Data (PDMELD) team to understand the project plan, monitoring, and reporting requirements.  Assist with baseline assessment at the facility level.
• Record statistics for mentoring and teaching and provide narrative reports as outlined by the PDMELD team. 
• Abide by security and operational protocols established by the Country Engagement Team; take operational directives from the Country Director and CET Operations Director when in pre and post-ship phases of the program.
• Maintains alignment and upholds Mercy Ships Core Values, Code of Conduct, and follows the policies and procedures published on Compass. 
  Follows the model of Jesus and aligns with our core values by Loving God; Loving and Serving Others; Being a Person of Integrity; and a Person of Excellence in all you say and do.
• Other duties may be assigned that are not included in the information provided in this job description. 

Ideal Candidate:

•    Keen interest in building nurse capacity in resource-limited contexts through the development and deployment of training programs.   
•    Experience in delivering clinical educational activities and willingness to develop own skills to ensure delivery of high-quality educational interventions.   
•    Ability to adapt and be flexible, depending on resources available, external factors, and consistent change. 
•    Ability to problem solve and be resilient in a resource-limited context. 
•    Ability to organize and plan work effectively within a team and organizational context.  
•    Able to lead and manage a diverse team through strong communication, problem solving, and planning skills.  
•    Must have excellent written and oral communication skills.  
•    Must possess cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity and the ability to build strong professional relationships to work in a multidisciplinary, multicultural team.   
•    Commitment to developing activities and processes in collaboration with partners to ensure long term sustainability of successful interventions. 
•    Supportive of Mercy Ships' mission and vision and committed to its core values.  
•    Understand and apply servant leadership, work collaboratively with integrity, and demonstrate accountability.  
•    Able to live in and contribute to community life, requiring stable and healthy interpersonal skills.  
•    Live in-country full time.  
•    Fluent in English.  
•    French language skills - International B1 Level (or equivalent), B2 level strongly preferred when serving in Francophone countries.  
•    Valid Driver's License from home country with International Driving Permit preferred (obtain prior to travel if necessary) and ability to drive standard (manual transmission) vehicle within a host country.

Education and/or Experience;

•    Registered Nurse with an active license in home country required. 
•    Nursing degree, equivalent to BScN or higher level. 
•    At least 3 years of relevant nursing experience including recent work experience in perioperative and/or operating room nursing.  
•    Or equivalent combination of experience and education.
Successful completion of the Mercy Ships Onboarding program will be required.
•    Experience working and/or training in healthcare in resource-limited settings is required. 
•    Experience in quality improvement, policy, and procedure design and implementation, and change management is strongly preferred.
•    Experience in education, curriculum design, development, and simulation preferred.
•    Additional training with the Country Engagement Team may be required, depending on project scope and duration.   

Pour your God-given talents into a mission with eternal return on investment -- join the Mercy Ships Crew, today! This is a paid position. To explore our many Mercy Ships volunteer opportunities, please visit us at: https://www.mercyships.org/get-involved/volunteer/