Late Summer or Fall practicum opportunity with LifeNet International!
LifeNet International is looking for a high quality intern to help us with health outcome metrics. We would request an intern for three months minimum, preferably starting in the late summer or fall of 2014.
Project: Measurement for Health Impact
Location: Bujumbura, Burundi and field work in 43 clinic and hospital partners
Mission: Guided by the belief that every individual deserves an equal opportunity to lead a healthy and whole life, LifeNet improves the quality of health systems from the ground up.
LifeNet’s main activities: packages of services including continuing education for nurses, management capacity building, medicine supply and growth financing.
Problem LifeNet International is assessing: Our current challenge is to develop metrics that will demonstrate the impact of our clinic capacity building program on the health of patients. The Ministry of Health collects a lot of information that is currently not being used at disaggregated levels. LifeNet also collects a lot of data in our partner clinics and is moving towards coaching clinics to collect and use their own data for decision-making. We collect data on typical measures like patient volume and revenues, but even when we can show with confidence that our training and programs increase the quality of care delivered at clinics or increase their sustainability/revenues, we cannot use our data to prove that we are making patients healthier. We know that by implementing what we teach, nurses are resuscitating newborns when they previously did not know how and would watch them die, they are preventing infection, giving non-lethal doses, and many other things that are saving lives and improving the health of patients.
In the first year of operations (2012), we expected to see a 50% increase over the baseline scores, but in fact the first cohort showed an average increase of 100%, or doubled scores. The second cohort showed 50% improvement in the first quarter of participation.
Students would be contributing to this project in several ways: (1) a recommendation of (a) health outcome metric(s) LifeNet can use for operations and marketing that are cost-effective and practical for our team and our budget, and (2) an M&E implementation strategy/plan for its use at LifeNet.
If interested in applying to this internship, please send a resume and cover letter to:
Stefanie Weiland
Executive Director and Burundi Country Director
