NEW Nutrition Counselor(Afghan Females Only) Mid level – Mid level IRC – International Rescue Committee Jalalabad

General Duties

Staff Coordination

• Maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing guidance to enable staff to successfully perform in their positions.
• Provide nutrition support and mentorship to other mobile clinic staff, providing on-the-job training where needed.
• Ensure non-disclosure of any information whatsoever about practices and IRC activities to any other person or organization without permission, except in the normal performance of the service.
• Consistently and proactively monitor/assess the safety and security of the team; promptly report concerns or incidents to IRC management and liaise with community leaders and other external parties as required to maintain/enhance the security environment for IRC programs.

Specific

Objective 1: Screening of all under 5 children and PLW

• Conduct systematic screening of all U5 children (Oedema, MUAC, Height, and Weight) and PLW (MUAC & Oedema) in selected communities.
• Maintain and update the screening, OPD-MAM, and OPD-SAM register books on a daily basis
• Refer children and PLWs who meet admission or discharge criteria to the nutrition nurse.
• Identify children who are absents and defaulted from the program and inform the community volunteers to conduct home visits.

Objective 2: Growth Monitoring all children under 2

• Register and undertake Growth Monitoring and promotion (GMP) including measuring weight, height, and age, and checking edema of all children under two years of age.
• conduct GMP-based counseling of mothers/ caregivers of all children under two years of age on appropriate maternal infant and young child nutrition MIYCN practice and infection prevention.
• If the child is normal encourage the counsel mother to reinforce and promote age appropriate MIYCN practices.
• If a child is suffering from acute malnutrition refer to the nutrition nurse of MHNT or Static Health Facility for giving adequate treatment and counseling.
• Counsel mothers or caregivers to bring under two children’s children for the continuous monthly GMP visit.

Objective 3: Counseling on maternal infant and young child nutrition (MIYCN)

• Provide individual nutrition counseling on appropriate practices based on the BMI and MUAC findings.
• Check whether lactating mothers received adequate IFA tablets during three months after delivery.
• If apparently the mothers’ health and nutrition are not suitable refer to the nutrition nurse and medical doctor for diagnosis and treatment.
• Check whether the child has received vitamin A supplementation during the previous national immunization day (NID) if not then refer to the doctor and Vaccinator of the Health Center to obtain vitamin A.
• Conduct complementary feeding food demonstrations to mothers and caregivers.
• Establish Mother to Mother support group.
• Provision of IYCF counseling at IYCF corner to mothers and primary caregivers for children under 2.
• Identify mothers to become peer educators in their villages and support them to undertake sensitization and work closely with CHWs.
• Lead individual and group nutrition counseling sessions tailored to the needs of clients and caregivers.
• Train and work with CHWs to ensure consistent messaging regarding best practices for IYCF and

Objective 4: Recording and reporting:

• Maintain regular reports to monitor and track the delivery of nutrition services.
• Use the MCH handbook in those provinces where the MCH handbook is applied.
• Identify beneficiaries who required follow-up visit and share information with community health volunteers to follow up those beneficiaries.
  
• Ensure accurate recording of nutrition information in the clinic registers and timely completion of summary reports.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education:

• Minimum Secondary school Diploma if having Nursing, Midwifery Diploma is an advantage.

Years of Experience:

• At least 2 years experience in the field of health and nutrition at the community level.

Skills:

• Skills to provide sensitive and appropriate counseling and strong communication skills.
• Must be a team player with excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to work under pressure in a stressful environment, displaying patience, compassion, and diplomacy.
• Ability to be innovative, flexible, adaptive, and willing to work out of hours, sometimes throughout the night.
• Ability to live in challenging conditions and ability to work under difficult, high-pressure situations.  
• Ability to lead, train, supervise, and facilitate other nursing staff and community health workers in their respective tasks.
• Ability and flexibility to understand the cultural and political environment and to work well with the local health representatives.

 Technical Competency:

• Communication and reporting skills
• Fluency in Pashto, Dari, and English
• Computer skills (including MS Word, Excel, Access, and Internet) an advantage.
• Ability to work closely, professionally, and constructively with all others regardless of nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, race, tribe, or cultural background.

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