JOB DESCRIPTION – Central Sterile Technician

Job Title: Central Sterile Technician

Reports to: Head of Medical Services

Location: Kigutu, Burundi

Background

Village Health Works (VHW) is a joint American-Burundian NGO based in Kigutu, Bururi Province whose mission is to provide quality, compassionate health care in a dignified environment while treating the root causes of illness, poverty, violence, and neglect in collaboration with those we serve.  VHW approach integrates clinical services with education, food security, economic development, environmental protection, music and the arts.

Currently, VHW engages in a wide array of clinical and community programs in a catchment area of over 200,000 people within the provinces of Rumonge and Bururi. Our clinic attends over 51,000 outpatient consultations per year.  Our 60-bed low acuity inpatient wards provides basic adult and pediatric non-operative inpatient services including treatment of malnutrition, mental health, chronic and acute diseases and uncomplicated obstetrical deliveries.  These services are administered by our staff of generalist physicians under the supervision of our Medical Director.

Village Health Works has embarked on an ambitious plan to expand our clinical care to provide comprehensive medical care including obstetrical and surgical services.  To achieve this goal, VHW has constructed and is equipping a new 150-bed state of the art hospital with 4 operating rooms.  Construction and installation of equipment will be completed in early 2023 with a projected clinical opening in the middle of 2023. For the opening of the hospital we are expanding our clinical staff hiring, including for central sterile technicians to help maintain sterility in our instruments and equipment.

Position Description:

Central Sterile Services Department Attendants work in the CSSD of the Kigutu Hospital, cleaning and sterilizing medical instruments, linens, and other items. They are responsible for ensuring that all contaminated materials are handled carefully and fully disinfected before being stored appropriately. They collect soiled items from departments, maintain an organized, well documented stockroom, and provide sterilized items to departments upon request.

Job Responsibilities:

• Collect used items from surgical suites and other departments and safely transport them to the central sterile department.
• Scrub items fully to remove solid and liquid wastes in a rough pass before sterilization.
• Sort, package, and seal instruments into surgical kits for sterilization.
• Operate autoclaves to fully sterilize equipment.
• Store items in central sterile storage and meticulously document their locations at all times.
• Deliver items to departments upon request in an organized manner.

Qualifications:

• 2+ Years of experience as a sterile room technician
• Ability to thoroughly scrub instruments and remaining standing for long periods of time
• Experience with hospital sterile procedures and understanding of the dangers of infection
• Secondary school diploma required, with sterile processing training or certificate preferred
• Intense attention to detail and willingness to report any errors in sterilization.

Salary and Benefits

Competitive salary, commensurate with experience.

How to apply

Qualified candidates are encouraged to submit a CV and a thoughtful cover letter describing your experience and how it applies to this position along with 3 professional references to: jobs@villagehealthworks.org. Please include “Central Sterile Technician” in the subject line of your email.

Village Health Works considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, veteran or military status.

Closing date for applications: February 19^th, 2023.