Job description
These positions are located in the United Nations Field Peacekeeping Operations, Special Political Missions, Service Centers and Offices as applicable. The Senior Medical Officer usually reports to the Chief and/or Directors of Mission Support (CMS/DMS).
Responsibilities- Oversees the delivery of high-quality occupational health services in the UN workplace, including employment clearances, travel medicine services and travel clearances.
- Leads the team ensure efficient and state-of the-art services provision at the UN clinic and partners for that with the national health providers and other entities.
- Oversees the delivery of effective workplace or general health promotion, occupational health and safety for the UN, including workplace and home ergonomics programs, immunization and workplace safety and health risk assessments.
- Oversees and provides specialist guidance on workplace (reasonable) accommodation requests with a medical component in line with UN policies.
- Develops and implements an emergency medical preparedness system in close liaison with the Security and Safety Services Service and the Business Continuity. Services. Develops risk-based emergency medical preparedness plans and oversees the implementation of these plans.
- Serves as the focal point for system-wide emergency preparedness and response issues, including medivac policy and support, pre-hospital trauma care standards, training and oversight and mass casualty incidents preparedness, including training and simulation exercises.
- Provides Mission staff and other UN country team personnel with theoretical and practical inputs on Medical First responder and Emergency Trauma Bag Training as well as Mass Casualty Incident Training. S/he also plans and implements HIV/AIDS awareness programme for the national and international staff.
- Implements the medical response to pandemics and disease outbreak. Provides technical guidance to the Crisis Management Team and periodic updates, as well as respond to management and staff on issues related to these specific needs and campaigns.
- Advises on other aspects of health including public health relevant to the duty station, through liaison with host state/host nation health authorities.
- Ensures quality in services including the implementation of quality control mechanisms and procedures, the use of published UN clinical guidelines, and adherence to patient safety and adverse event reporting requirements.
2. Medical Administration:
- Leads the engagement and coordinates with other UN entities, Funds and Programmes the overall framework of medical and psychosocial support, and design and implements systems to report and follow up with client agencies.
- Oversees the provision of recommendations or determinations related to medical entitlements.
- Oversees the completion of sick leave, including where required liaison with individual staff members and their healthcare providers to ensure effective sick leave management.
- Oversees the development and implementation of return-to-work programs.
- Monitors sick leave usage in conjunction with human resources staff and prepares and finalizes disability summaries and reports for the Medical Director and UNJSPF.
- Oversees medical evacuation and repatriation services.
- Maintains and continuously updates a centralized database with information about duty station-related emergency preparedness levels, gap analysis and mitigation measures; advises Senior Management Team on critical gaps and proposes risk controls in consultation with the respective UN entities.
- Undertakes mediation and informal dispute resolution related to medical entitlements, and where required represents the medical service in formal dispute resolution bodies such as medical boards or the UN Dispute Tribunal.
3. Supervisory:
- Manages the work and results of all staff working in the medical service, including where appropriate occupational safety staff or remote staff supervised by the medical service.
- Ensures medical confidentiality and release of medical records/information is in accordance with UN policies and requirements.
- Manages access to the EarthMed medical record system and other systems used by the UN.
- Undertakes the annual planning and preparation of budgets and prepares reports on budget performance and results adjusting to meet evolving requirements.
- Ensures the development, generation and reporting of relevant key performance indicators documenting health support performance including responses to audit requests on health performance.
- Ensures timely recruiting and training of all new staff, and effective performance management.
- Ensures effective continuous professional development of staff and their career management.
- Ensures compliance of UN healthcare facilities with Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety (HQPS) standards.
- Ensures appropriate training programs are implemented in order to maintain and develop the medical capabilities (e.g., HQPS standards, Root Cause Analyses trainings etc.).
4. Advisory, liaison, and representation:
- Undertakes regular coordination with the Office of the Director, DHMOSH UNHQ, contributes to the development of UN healthcare policy, and ensures alignment of policy and practice in UN health care services.
- Represents the medical service at events and meetings with other UN entities and in national and international fora.
- Oversees workplace health and medical service communication products, and liaison/outreach with external actors.
- Briefs and advises senior management on all healthcare matters relevant to the workplace, including health policies, business continuity, enterprise risk management, and representation at crisis response and related bodies.
- Represents the medical service on health and medical entitlements matters before the UN judicial system and UN investigative bodies.
- Ensures effective occupational health representation at the local occupational health and safety committee.
- Performs other related duties as required.
PROFESSIONALISM: Knowledge of clinical, occupational safety and health and tropical/travel medicine. Ability to manage a diverse and multicultural team and to operate efficiently under stressful circumstances. Good drafting ability in English. Shows pride in work and in achievements; demonstrates professional competence and mastery of subject matter; is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines, and achieving results; is motivated by professional rather than personal concerns; shows persistence when faced with difficult problems or challenges; remains calm in stressful situations.
ACCOUNTABLITY: Takes ownership of all responsibilities and honors commitments; delivers outputs for which one has responsibility within prescribed time, cost and quality standards; operates in compliance with organizational regulations and rules; supports subordinates; provides oversight and takes responsibility for delegated assignments; takes personal responsibility for his/her own shortcomings and those of the work unit, where applicable.
COMMUNICATION: Speaks and writes clearly and effectively; listens to others, correctly interprets messages from others and responds appropriately; asks questions to clarify, and exhibits interest in having two-way communication; tailors’ language, tone, style and format to match audience; demonstrates openness in sharing information and keeping people informed
LEADERSHIP: Serves as a role model that other people want to follow: empowers others to translate vision into results; is proactive in developing strategies to accomplish objectives; establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs and gain support; anticipates and resolves conflicts by pursuing mutually agreeable solutions; drives for change and improvements; does not accept the status quo; shows the courage to take unpopular stands. Provides leadership and takes responsibility for incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work; demonstrates knowledge of strategies and commitment to the goal of gender balance in staffing.
JUDGEMENT/DECISION-MAKING: Identifies the key issues in a complex situation, and comes to the heart of the problem quickly; gathers relevant information before making a decision; considers positive and negative impacts of decisions prior to making them; takes decisions with an eye to the impact on others and on the Organization; proposes a course of action or makes a recommendation based on all available information; checks assumptions against facts; determines that the actions proposed will satisfy the expressed and underlying needs for the decision; makes tough decisions when necessary.
A first-level university degree that qualifies for registration as a licensed medical practitioner (MD, MBBS, MBChB or equivalent) and current unrestricted registration with the medical licensing authority of one of the Members States of the United Nations is required.
Job - Specific QualificationCertification or postgraduate qualification in a medicine specialization is desirable
Certification in occupational medicine is desirable
A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible clinical experience in one of the areas of medicine is required.
Residency and/or Internship in one of the medical specialties is required.
Five years of experience in the Occupational Health field is required.
Three years of managerial experience in the medical field including budgeting, supervisory responsibilities and resource management is required.
Three years of experience in the medical field in a developing country is required.
Three years in an International Organization is desirable.
English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For this roster, fluency in English is required and knowledge of other UN official languages is desirable.
AssessmentEvaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by competency-based interview.
Special NoticeThe United Nations Secretariat maintains rosters of qualified and available candidates to fill anticipated job openings in peacekeeping operations, special political missions, and other field operations.
The purpose of this job opening is to generate a list of qualified candidates for inclusion in the Senior Medical Officer, P-5 roster. The entire assessment process takes an average of four months; all applicants will be notified in writing of the outcome of their application (whether successful or unsuccessful) within 14 days of the conclusion of the process. Successful candidates will be placed on the roster and subsequently will be invited to apply for field mission vacancies open only to roster members. Roster membership does not guarantee selection.
According to article 101, paragraph 3, of the Charter of the United Nations, the paramount consideration in the employment of the staff is the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity. Candidates will not be considered for employment with the United Nations if they have committed violations of international human rights law, violations of international humanitarian law, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, or sexual harassment, or if there are reasonable grounds to believe that they have been involved in the commission of any of these acts. The term “sexual exploitation” means any actual or attempted abuse of a position of vulnerability, differential power, or trust, for sexual purposes, including, but not limited to, profiting monetarily, socially or politically from the sexual exploitation of another. The term “sexual abuse” means the actual or threatened physical intrusion of a sexual nature, whether by force or under unequal or coercive conditions. The term “sexual harassment” means any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature that might reasonably be expected or be perceived to cause offence or humiliation, when such conduct interferes with work, is made a condition of employment or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment, and when the gravity of the conduct warrants the termination of the perpetrator’s working relationship. Candidates who have committed crimes other than minor traffic offences may not be considered for employment.
Due regard will be paid to the importance of recruiting the staff on as wide a geographical basis as possible. The United Nations places no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in any capacity and under conditions of equality in its principal and subsidiary organs. The United Nations Secretariat is a non-smoking environment.
The paramount consideration in the appointment, transfer, or promotion of staff shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, competence, and integrity. By accepting an offer of appointment, United Nations staff members are subject to the authority of the Secretary-General and assignment by him or her to any activities or offices of the United Nations in accordance with staff regulation 1.2 (c). In this context, all internationally recruited staff members shall be required to move periodically to discharge new functions within or across duty stations under conditions established by the Secretary-General.
Applicants are urged to follow carefully all instructions available in the online recruitment platform, inspira. For more detailed guidance, applicants may refer to the Manual for the Applicant, which can be accessed by clicking on “Manuals” hyper-link on the upper right side of the inspira account-holder homepage.
The evaluation of applicants will be conducted on the basis of the information submitted in the application according to the evaluation criteria of the job opening and the applicable internal legislations of the United Nations including the Charter of the United Nations, resolutions of the General Assembly, the Staff Regulations and Rules, administrative issuances and guidelines. Applicants must provide complete and accurate information pertaining to their personal profile and qualifications according to the instructions provided in inspira to be considered for the current job opening. No amendment, addition, deletion, revision or modification shall be made to applications that have been submitted. Candidates under serious consideration for selection will be subject to reference checks to verify the information provided in the application.
Job openings advertised on the Careers Portal will be removed at 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on the deadline date.
THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.