Staff Health Unit (SHU) intern At Médecins Sans Frontières en Suisse

Join MSF OCG as a Staff Health Unit (SHU) intern!

We are looking for passionate candidates ready to contribute to our humanitarian mission.

Below, you will find the job details and the qualifications we are looking for.

This internship is part of an academic training program, a professional training program, or a socio-professional integration program, and must comply with the conditions set by the Employment Market Supervisory Council (CSME). The duration of the internship, as defined by the tripartite agreement, is 6 to 12 months at 100%

Inclusivity and Diversity at MSF

Do your qualifications and experience not exactly match all requirements of the job?

At MSF OCG, we are committed to an inclusive culture that supports and amplifies the diverse voices of our staff members. We strive to create workplaces where teams of people with diverse backgrounds, characteristics, perspectives, ideas and experiences work together to advance MSF’s social mission and create better outcomes for our patients and the communities we work with.

We understand that some people may hesitate to apply for employment if they don’t meet all listed job requirements. Research shows that this is especially true for women. If you believe your profile is a good match for this position, we invite you to apply even if you don’t fulfil every listed qualification.

We encourage applications from individuals of all genders, ages, sexual orientations, ethnicities, background, religions, beliefs, ability status, and all other diversity characteristics.

MSF does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of discrimination or harassment, including sexual harassment. All selected candidates will undergo reference checks.

Context

Médecins Sans Frontières is an independent, international medical and humanitarian organization that provides care to people in need, people affected by natural or man-made disasters, and victims of armed conflict, without discrimination and without regard to race, religion, creed or political affiliation (MSF Charter).

MSF has a responsibility to ensure that staff are adequately prepared before going on field assignments and that their health and well-being are adequately supported whilst on mission. This includes preventive and curative mental and physical health care. The Staff Health Unit (SHU) is the focal point within MSF Switzerland for advising on all work-related health issues to MSF staff. The SHU provides technical support to the field in the development, implementation and regular update of health policies created to safeguard the health of all MSF employees.

Mission & Internship Objectives

The intern will support the Staff Health in the delivery of quality support to the health and wellbeing of MSF employees and:

• Learn the mechanics of running a staff health unit in a humanitarian aid organization.
• Learn and/or suggest improvements in good practice in staff health management
• Depending on the intern’s learning ability and his/her background, additional responsibilities and activities may be assigned
• During the internship period and in agreement with the SHU Manager, the intern may identify and work on a specific topic related to her/his academic background, competencies and interest.
• Monitoring the SHU activities is a key component that will inform the team on making decisions, priorities and needed adjustments.

Tasks and responsibilities

In relation to briefings and debriefings

• Ensure that all MSF staff going or coming back to a field mission have access to quality mental health preventative and curative services:
• Dispatching and follow-up of briefings and debriefings of international and mobile staff, to the OCG SHU psychologist or to the external consultants according to the defined criteria.

Monitoring of the SHU activities

• Support developing and maintaining a monitoring system to keep track the SHU activities (numbers of briefings/debriefings/referrals for support and other activities).
• Support the SHU in the gradual uploading of information of its data base.
• Ensure that fitness certificates of staff going to the field are transferred to the pertinent person in the Administration team, or duly filled in the SHU data base (data base under development).

Administrative tasks

• In charge of invoices follow-up from external consultants and other service providers, linking with the Accounting Unit.
• Provide support to the SHU whenever needed, in order to arrange medical or psychological appointments for MSF staff who need medical care, when pertinent.
• Support the unit with the diffusion/uploading of updated documents into the knowledge management platform.
• Internal communications upon delegation of the SHU Manager

Other activities

• Participate in the weekly team meetings.
• Participate in other MSF internal meetings – workshops, webinars, according on pertinence and availability/workload.
• According the needs and competencies of the intern identified, Field Visit can be organized with adequate mentoring or in “binome” with a senior staff.
• Accompany SHU Officers / Manager in external meetings with other relevant stakeholders based in Geneva.

Depending on the competencies of the intern, and in agreement with the SHU Manager, additional tasks can be arranged.

Your profile

• Have a tripartite internship agreement
• Fluent in French and English (oral and written)
• Tertiary degree in Management and/or Administration, Management of Health Services or equivalent.
• Experience in statistics or data management, an asset
• Planning and organizational skills
• Excellent knowledge of the Microsoft Office environment
• Knowledge of key issues of the humanitarian environment
• Excellent ability to succesfully work in a multicultural environment and to demonstrate commitment and support for diversity, gender-responsive, inclusive, and non-discriminatory behaviour and attitudes.
• Cultural sensitivity
• Flexible and approachable
• Open listening, high empathy capacity
• Proactive and solution oriented.
• High degree of discretion and respect of confidentiality

Terms of employment

• A tripartite internship agreement is mandatory
• 6 to 12 months, according to internship agreement
• Full time (40h/week)
• Based in Geneva, Switzerland
• Start date : January 2025
• Gross monthly remuneration 2’000.- CHF