Assistant Technical Officer- Zimbabwe Association of Church-related Hospitals

Position summary

Working closely with the Provincial Technical Officer to support the allocated districts the Assistant Technical Officer will provide technical and programmatic assistance to implement HIV prevention, treatment. care and support program. The assistant will support quality HTS care and roll out of the epidemic control HIV testing services to identify new HIV positive clients, linkage to ART, be instrumental in ensuring adherence and retention among PLHIV on ART. The assistant will also ensure access to viral load testing and scale up differentiated service delivery models. He/she will also ensure the scale up of TB/HIV collaborative activities and preventive strategies such as TB preventive therapy (TPT), PrEP and cervical cancer screening. The technical officer is a mentor in Quality improvement and plays a pivotal role in ensuring implementation of QI initiatives at all supported sites in her/his districts. Defaulter tracking, TPT initiations, viral load monitoring, PMTCT/EID and VIAC services.

Key duties and responsibilities

To support the coordination, implementation, monitoring and scale-up of strategies to achieve the 95,95,95 global targets; To facilitate the efficient and accurate reporting of program activities ensuring quantitative, qualitative, and retentive deliverables are achieved; To support sites in the districts to implement strategies to improve adherence and retention into care and treatment services among PLHIV including children, adolescents, and young adults; Work with data SIE team to ensure all program related data is collected, validated, reported accurately and timeously to inform and guide evidence -based planning and implementation; To ensure that the epidemic control testing model is rolled out at all sites in the district; Work with the Provincial Technical officer to develop work schedules and performance enhancement interventions; Provides expert coaching and mentorship activities at supported sites during supportive visits;

Health facility level duties

Support the optimization of comprehensive HIV/AIDS, PMTCT, RH/HIV, TB, HTS, VIAC and other services at the site level; Support the QI capacity of mentors in utilizing data for program improvement; Assign nurse counsellors/VIAC nurses, Retention and Community staff, and Young Mentor Mothers in selected key entry points for the administration of screening tools in low yield entry points; Supervise DSD staff in the targeted testing and correct/consistent documentation to reach targets; Mentor the clinical and non-clinical staff, community workers, YMM in psychosocial counselling skills necessary to conduct successful sexual partner elicitation; Provide psychosocial counselling services to staff; In collaboration with the district and site HIV focal person, generate a list of priority index cases followed by contacts elicitation from the latter; Assist Clinical services mentors and Adherence and retention Officers to improve their counselling skills to elicit more contacts including sexual contacts from all index clients; Follow up on all cascades to identify gaps to come up with strategies to close service gaps; Assist in implementing of EMTCT and EID; Assist in implementing of DSD, TLD transition, MMD, TB prevention and VL Process mapping; Coordinating and supporting VIAC activities; Work to ensure complete documentation in all registers (HTS, TPT, Defaulter, Viral load and Index contacts register); Support, follow up and document any under-performing staff etc directly or through the Provincial Technical officers; Assist review submitted data identify challenges so that they are addressed on time; Work with Provincial technical officer to prevent attrition among ART patients by daily compiling of missed appointment lists in collaboration with the data clerk; Support retention activities such as effective referral through use of referral slips and defaulter identification and tracking registers; Plan activities for timely submission of appropriate paperwork to respective offices; Support routine data collection, weekly and monthly timely reporting; In liaison with PTO represent the organisation in district and Provincial meetings; Attend to other duties assigned by the supervisor

Knowledge, skills & attributes

A sound understanding of HIV/AIDS, TB and experience in integrated HIV care delivery; Sensitivity to cultural differences and understanding of the social, political, and ethical issues surrounding HIV/AIDS programming; Fluency in written and spoken English communication. Fluency in local dialect and language of host community would be an added advantage; Ability to work well with others and to develop and maintain compatibility among project staff, subcontractors, consultants, and recipients of assistance; Ability to manage tight deadlines and deliver high volumes of work with minimal supervision; Computer skills in Microsoft word, excel, power point and outlook at minimum.

Desirable qualifications and experience

Diploma or degree in nursing with additional post-graduation qualification in public health, community nursing and other related programs; A minimum of 5 years’ progressive professional experience in HIV/AIDS programming; Understanding the dynamics of HIV programming in Zimbabwe with an in-depth knowledge of implementation of HIV/AIDS, SRH, GBV, adolescent and key population health programs; Rapid HIV testing training and advanced HIV training is an advantage; Understanding of Health Care Service delivery in Zimbabwe; Understanding of the faith, traditional and religious communities in Zimbabwe; Prior experience working in HIV/AIDS Management/Control programmes/ Community; Understanding of health facility HIV/AIDS data collection tools: screening tools, registers, client files and other necessary health care setting documents.