Field Assistants (Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention (PMC) Case-Control Study) at Malaria Consortium

Malaria Consortium  - Established in 2003, Malaria Consortium is one of the world’s leading non-profit organisations specialising in the comprehensive prevention, control and treatment of malaria and other communicable diseases among vulnerable and underprivileged populations. We increasingly find our work on malaria can be effectively integrated with other similar public health interventions for greater impact and therefore expanded our remit to include child health and neglected tropical disease interventions.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Field Assistant - Perennial Malaria Chemoprevention (PMC) Case-Control Study Osun state

Location: Osun
Duration: December-2023- May- 2024.

Job Description

• We are requires qualified field assistants who will support the case-control study for the PMC Effect Study in Osun state. The case-control study is designed to estimate the efficacy of SP in preventing clinical malaria.
• The field assistant will lead in the identification of children with confirmed malaria at the assigned health facility, in the age range (2 – 20 months) eligible for PMC and eligible to be recruited as cases. Field assistants will also support confirmation of cases using an LDH-based rapid test. Eight Local Government Areas in Osun State comprising of 40 intervention Wards are being used for this study including: Ayedaade, Ede South West, Atakunmosa West, Iwo, Irewole, Ife North, Obokun and Egbedore.

Specific Tasks for field Assistants

• Receive briefing from Malaria Consortium team on the assignment
• Recruit and interview cases. Potential cases are children aged 2-20 months, presenting with fever, or history of fever in the last 48 hours and who therefore require a malaria test. Cases must be patients who are accompanied by a parent or legal guardian who is able to give consent. Please aim to recruit cases at approximately the same rate (cases/week) uniformly throughout the study. The number of cases/controls to be recruited will be distributed evenly throughout the periods per week/month.
• Identify the controls from the neighbourhood where the cases reside and interview the controls.
• Liaise with clinic staff in the study areas to ensure dates of SP doses are carefully recorded on child record cards and in a clinic NHMIS register.
• Sensitise communities about the aims and procedures of the case-control study.
• Ensure quality control procedures for LDH-based RDTs to be used.
• Follow up with medical record officers to ensure that the dates of all PMC treatments among the case and the control children are accurately documented. The field assistant will have to clarify with the record officer to ensure that the data are well documented before extracting and sending to the electronic database using the data collection tool.
• Copy dates from the child’s home-based record, and cross-checked in the clinic NHMIS register, and the caregiver should be asked about when the child received SP.
• Respond to related queries and data needs and requests from the project’s technical team and key sub-national partners, SMEP and SPHCDA.

Deliverables for Consultant

• List of identified cases from the assigned health facility
• Data submitted from interviews with caregivers
• Data extracted from National Health Management Information System Registers
• RDT malaria test results of blood sample collected from cases

Qualifications and Experience: Research Assistants
Expert Profile

• The field assistant will have a minimum of diploma in a health-related course with experience in health services provision

Essential

• Resident in Osun state
• Registered nurse/midwife, hold diploma or degree in health-related sciences, or equivalent subject-matter experience
• Significant experience in blood sample collection and interviews, including the use of ODK to capture data
• Familiarity with primary health care setting
• Familiarity with community-based study, in particular in the context of Southwest Nigeria
• Excellent communication skills
• Fluent in Yoruba language.

Desirable:

• Experience of collaborating with government institutions and non-governmental organisations or academic institutions
• Experience in translating Yoruba Language into English Language that is understood by diverse audiences

Timeline for activities/Total TA Days:

• Duration- December-2023- May- 2024
• Total TA days- 30 days (5-days per month).

Application Closing Date
22nd November, 2023.