Pediatricians
About MSF USA | Doctors Without Borders
Pediatricians
From overseeing intensive therapeutic feeding centers during a nutrition crisis to tending to children affected by cerebral malaria, our pediatricians deliver vital healthcare every day.
Responsibilities
Being a pediatrician with MSF is both challenging and incredibly rewarding. As a pediatric doctor, you’ll have the opportunity to make a profound impact by responding to critical situations such as measles epidemics, managing care for severely ill neonates, addressing the needs of malnourished children, or working closely with displaced families.
Your clinical skills and resourcefulness will be welcomed as you work in places where healthcare infrastructure may face significant challenges. You’ll be called upon to diagnose and treat medical conditions that might not be commonly encountered in your home country, adding a unique dimension to your professional and personal journey.
Your role extends beyond the medical, requiring managerial and administrative skills as you lead and train large teams of healthcare staff. The sense of teamwork and collaboration within MSF means you are not alone in facing these challenges. MSF provides expert technical support, offering extensive guidelines and protocols to guide you.
Requirements
- Medical doctor degree
- Pediatrics specialization or ongoing specialization, with a minimum of three years of professional experience in pediatrics
- At least six months of clinical experience within the last two years
- Excellent command of English, as well as French (level B2). Other languages such as Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, or Russian are an asset.
- Available to work abroad for 9 to 12 months
- Experience in managing staff in a multicultural team (supervision and training)
- Relevant travel or work experience in contexts similar to where MSF works (armed conflicts, disasters, public health emergencies, or situations of healthcare exclusion)
Assets
- Additional clinical experience in areas such as obstetrics-gynecology, nutrition, emergency, infectious diseases, public health, general medicine, anesthetics, ICU or minor surgery
- Postgraduate study in international public health, refugee health, infectious diseases, or tropical medicine
- Training in neonatology or intensive care or both, management of children requiring emergency care or cardio-respiratory intensive care, including one or more of: acute pediatric life support (APLS), helping babies breathe (HBB), emergency triage, assessment and treatment (ETAT)
Before you apply
As you consider applying to undertake an MSF assignment, it is essential that you have a well-informed and realistic personal reflection. Assignments often mean long hours with a heavy workload, basic living conditions, and working and living in often chaotic and volatile environments.
Security and Safety
Because Doctors Without Borders’ purpose is to bring medical assistance to people in distress, the work may occur in settings of active conflict, or in post-conflict environments, in which there are inherent risks, potential danger and ongoing threats to safety and security. MSF acknowledges that it is impossible to exclude all risks, but it does its utmost as an organization to mitigate and manage these risks through strict and comprehensive security protocols.
International staff will be fully informed of the risk associated with a potential assignment before accepting a particular posting. Working for MSF is a deeply personal choice; individuals must determine for themselves the level of risk and the circumstances in which they feel comfortable, based on a full and transparent understanding of the possibilities they may face. Once in the assignment, all MSF staff must strictly observe security rules and regulations; failure to do so may result in dismissal.
Terms of Employment
MSF staff are employees with a salary and benefits.
MSF encourages the completion of multiple assignments. The organization has many possibilities for professional growth in the medical, non-medical, and coordination streams.
Final Thoughts
As you consider applying to undertake an MSF assignment, is it essential that you have a well-informed and realistic personal reflection. Assignments often mean long hours with a heavy workload, basic living conditions, and working and living in often chaotic and volatile environments.
Despite such challenges, thousands of people have worked with MSF over the years and found their experiences in the field to be deeply rewarding, even life-changing. More than anything else, being an MSF international worker means acting in solidarity with people facing unimaginable medical challenges. Your presence alongside people in times of need sends a profoundly meaningful and human message: “You are not forgotten.”
MSF-USA is dedicated to creating a diverse, impartial, and inclusive workforce. We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate based on gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, race, religion, age, national origin, disability, marital status, pregnancy status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other differences as per applicable laws. We also provide reasonable accommodation for disabilities or religious beliefs and practices. We encourage individuals from underrepresented communities in the Humanitarian Aid sector to apply.
If you have a disability and require accommodations to use our website for applying for a position, please get in touch with Human Resources at employment.msfusa@newyork.msf.org. We consider reasonable accommodation requests on a case-by-case basis.
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