Position

Senior PCE Coordinator

Group

Public and Community Engagement (PCE)

Location

This post is based in Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi, with some travel required.

Hours of work

37.5 hours per week, extra hours may be required.

Tenure

Initially for 1 year, including a 2-month probation period, with the possibility of extension

Reporting to

Head of Public and Community Engagement

Vacancy reference

JD-0524-013

Background

The Oxford University Clinical Research Unit (OUCRU) is a large-scale clinical and public health research unit, with sites offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in Vietnam, Jakarta in Indonesia and Kathmandu in Nepal. In Vietnam, we are hosted by the Hospital of Tropical Diseases (HTD) in Ho Chi Minh City, and the National Hospital for Tropical Diseases (NHTD) in Hanoi. OUCRU Nepal has partnerships with the Patan Academy of Health Sciences and Patan Hospital, and OUCRU Indonesia exists in partnership with the University of Indonesia. As a Wellcome Trust Africa Asia Programme, we have received considerable support from the Wellcome Trust since our establishment in 1991.

OUCRU’s vision is to have local, regional and global impact on health by leading a locally driven research programme on infectious diseases in Southeast Asia. Priority is given to health issues important to the hospitals where we work, and to the countries as a whole where we operate: Vietnam, Indonesia and Nepal.  All work is intended not only to benefit the patients seen daily at our host hospitals, but also to help improve patient care.

OUCRU employs approximately 320 people across Viet Nam and has an average annual budget of USD 12mil.

Please see more information on OUCRU website: www.oucru.org

Job summary

OUCRU is a leading centre of biomedical research (www.oucru.org). Dedicated to research excellence, OUCRU has a commitment to promote its research findings internationally and locally in Vietnam. OUCRU has a dedicated team, Public and Community Engagement, responsible for promoting the image and science of OUCRU in Vietnam, designing and implementing trainings and public engagement activities to improve knowledge and skills for diversity stakeholders ranging from workshops in rural communities, theatre shows with a health message in local schools to promoting collaborations with research institutes, schools and universities in Vietnam.

OUCRU PCE has a strong focus on supporting healthcare workers to strengthen their skills in communicating about health and vaccines. Some of this work has taken place in Binh Phuoc and Dak Lak province, where many communities are ethnic minorities and hard-to-reach. After 5 years of research and collaboration with health services in these provinces we have co-created a TOT and Training Manual for District/Commune Health staff to better support Community Health Volunteers.  This training has been piloted in 20 communes in Dak Lak province and shared with provincial, regional and national health services, NIHE, WHO/UNICEF and iNGOs. The next steps are to work with these stakeholders to maximize utility of the training progamme.

As a means of sharing our outputs and learnings, OUCRU has partnered with University of Oxford The Global Health Network, and KEMRI – Kenya to create a website platform ‘CONNECT’ to share materials that support HCWs.  https://connect.tghn.org/ This website has a dedicated page in Vietnamese.  The PCE group has a team of trainers who support HCWs (Research Enrichment team -RE). Their trainings should be modified and shared on CONNECT for a wider audience.

The Senior PCE Coordinator will take responsibility for leading two Community Engagement projects: Vaccine communication training project and CONNECT website working closely with healthcare workers, health researchers, clinicians, engagement practitioners on the following:

Vaccine communication training:

• Stakeholder engagement to understand the current practices that support vaccine workers, and how/who OUCRU can collaborate with to share our findings and the training manual.
• Capacity building for health workers and provincial partners by training and support  to use the Vaccine Training Manual.

CONNECT:

• Working very closely with CONNECT coordinator, PCE Communications team and PCE RE team.
• Involvement in activities for wider engagement with HCWs in Vietnam, including needs assessments and dissemination about the CONNECT site. This may involve travel to provincial hospitals.
• Writing and sourcing new material for the CONNECT site, based on the needs assessments.
• Implement offline and online trainings and engagement activities to support Healthcare Workers at the Hospitals

Key responsibilities and tasks

You be working in a team to implement engagement projects under the guidance of Head of Public and Community Engagement based in OUCRU HCM. This involves the following:

Vaccination communication training:

• Develop partnerships and work with local and international partners (NIHE, CDC, WHO-Vietnam) to implement the project
• Promote the Vaccine Training Manual and TOT nationally.
• Develop implementation plan in collaboration with local partners.
• Conduct TOT trainings for healthcare workers responsible for training the hamlet-level health collaborators, to use the Training Manual. Provide ongoing supervision and guidance to TOT participants.
• Evaluate curriculum content and delivery, and modify as required.
• Work with PCE comms team to design media production for the project activities
• Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the project is essential. This may include developing a theory of change, and identifying measures of success.
• Annual, and final project reporting in English is essential.
• Project budgeting and financial reporting.

CONNECT website:

• Working very closely with CONNECT coordinator, PCE Communications team and PCE RE team.
• Develop need assessment to explore the needs of healthcare workers on communications skills and other soft skills. This may involve travel to provincial hospitals. These findings will be written in a formal report in English.
• Forming an advisory group of HCWs and users to advise on content for the site.
• Writing and sourcing new material for the CONNECT site, based on the needs assessments.
• Work closely with CONNECT and PCE comms teams to upload training documents on the website. Also monitor activities on the site.
• Develop and implement a dissemination strategy to share the CONNECT site with HCWs and hospital managers at a national level.  
• Implement offline and online trainings and engagement activities to support Healthcare Workers at the Hospitals. These will be done in close collaboration with PCE Research Enrichment team.
• Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the project is essential. This may include developing a theory of change, and identifying measures of success.
• Annual, and final project reporting in English is essential.
• Project budgeting and financial reporting.

Other tasks:

• Be responsible for organization and logistics arrangements of project activities;
• Be responsible for making contracts and paperwork for the projects’ permission;
• Be responsible for making budgets for project activities;
• Annual reporting requirements for OUCRU, HTD and funding partners;
• Travel to oversee the project activities and evaluation activities
• Where the applicant is unfamiliar with the job they may be required to spend time learning the fundamental aspects of this discipline;
• Other tasks requested by Head of PCE.

Selection criteria

Essential:

• MSc/MA in related public health or social sciences;
• Excellent spoken and written English and Vietnamese essential;
• Experience of working with government and senior stakeholders essential;
• Project and budget management experience essential;
• Proven ability to work with a range of health care workers and local communities;
• Energetic and creative; open to new approaches and ideas;
• Experience with media and communications;
• Experience with monitoring, evaluation and report writing;
• Willingness to join evening meetings, weekend events and travel within the country and abroad;
• A confident communicator and presenter;
• Highly organized;
• Ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, and yet be a team player.

Desired:

• Experience in gathering data and assessment;
• Understanding of academic, research or not-for-profit working environment.

Benefits

-        Contracted salary:

o   Grade: IC4/RS4

o   Salary ranges: $ 1,626 – 1,802 gross per month

-        Optional insurance: In-patient and out-patient medical coverage; Personal accident insurance coverage

-        Two months salary for annual bonus and clothes 

-        Annual leave 18 days/year for the first year, a maximum of 30 days

-        Other responsibilities and benefits are based on Viet Nam Labor Law.

Senior PCE Coordinator

Interested candidates are invited to send curriculum vitae, application and copies of relevant certificates, either by email or by post to:

Oxford University Clinical Research Unit

Laboratory of Clinical Science

Hospital for Tropical Diseases

764 Vo Van Kiet, Ward 1, District 5, HCMC

Tel: 39237954

Email: [email protected]

*** We thank all candidates for their interest but only short-listed applicants will be notified for interview.

Contact person

Ms Nguyen Thi Hong Phuc

Deadline for submission

9 June 2024