Healthcare

WHAT WE DO

The ICRC is firmly committed to providing quality health programmes designed to meet professional standards. While our traditional health activities (first aid, war surgery, physical rehabilitation and health care in detention) remain as relevant as ever before, other disciplines (primary health care, comprehensive hospital care, and mental health and psychosocial support) are increasingly significant.

Health activities are integral to our protection and prevention work, addressing issues such as discrimination in access to health care, the safety of medical workers, torture and ill-treatment, the needs of the families of missing people, and sexual violence.

Our public health approach also combines key elements from our assistance activities (health care, water, sanitation and housing projects, and economic security initiatives). We assess people’s health needs alongside their other basic needs to maximize the benefits.

We often work in partnership with other organizations to bring together experts from different fields and we cooperate with other members of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Responsibility for delivering health services ultimately rests with governments. Our health activities are therefore often carried out in close collaboration with health ministries, or are designed to support the health authorities in providing services to the population.

WHAT WE LOOK FOR

The ICRC continuously recruits qualified and experienced health professionals to provide clinical care to people in need and/or to manage health projects serving the population of a defined geographic area in emergency and non-emergency situations.

Interested candidates must be fluent in English and have good oral and written communication skills. Knowledge of a second language of relevance to the ICRC, such as French, Arabic, Spanish or Russian, is a strong asset.

We are looking for professionals with prior international field exposure, who are sensitive and open to cultural, ethnic and gender diversity and strongly motivated by humanitarian work. We recruit over 40 different profiles, including physicians, nurses, midwives, physical therapists and psychologists, often with additional specialties in surgery, emergency care, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and public health, to name a few.

Candidates must be able to work under pressure, in multidisciplinary and multicultural teams and sometimes in harsh living conditions and complex security environments.

WHAT WE OFFER

By joining our organization, you will have an opportunity to practice your profession in stimulating, complex and sometimes challenging environments, where your work can really make a difference.

You will work with colleagues from various fields of expertise in a cross-cutting manner to help victims of conflict and other situations of violence. You will be dealing with humanitarian situations that require experience, resourcefulness and innovation in order to achieve the best possible impact, often with limited resources.

You will work for the oldest major international humanitarian organization in the world, adding to your sense of achievement in alleviating the suffering of people and communities and giving you the chance to promote humanitarian values in these turbulent times.

You will benefit from a competitive employment package, including different possibilities for career and personal development. You will take part in an onboarding course and follow continuous training, in order to build your career within the ICRC and beyond.

STORIES FROM THE FIELD

THE ICRC’S HEALTH PROGRAMMES ON THE GROUND

Please note that all positions in the following programmes are not continuously open.

FIRST AID AND PRE-HOSPITAL EMERGENCY CARE

The ICRC’s first aid and pre-hospital emergency care programmes aim to ensure that wounded and sick people receive safe, humane and effective treatment, and/or are referred to the right facility for further care. These programmes are all delivered by skilled emergency responders working in safe conditions. They are underpinned by humanitarian values, and adapted to the realities and resources on the ground.

PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

The aim of the ICRC’s primary health care programme is to guarantee a first point of access to health care for victims of armed conflict. Primary health-care services rely on professionally trained staff to support the provision of care and treatment of the diseases most commonly contracted in the communities and carry out the most effective preventive action, such as vaccinating children and providing ante-natal care for pregnant women.

HOSPITAL CARE

Throughout its history, the ICRC has always assisted victims of war and other situations of violence by providing them with life-saving surgery and comprehensive hospital care. The ICRC supports existing hospital structures, provides direct patient care, brings in medical supplies, enhances the capacity of local hospital staff and contributes to improving people’s access to hospital services.

HEALTH CARE IN DETENTION

The overall aim of the health care in detention programme is to protect the life and health of detainees, and to ensure that governments respect detainees’ dignity and their right to receive health care at all stages of their detention. By promoting adequate health care in places of detention, we often also help improve the health of the community outside the prison walls.

PHYSICAL REHABILITATION

ICRC physical rehabilitation projects are designed to strengthen the rehabilitation services provided in a given country. We aim to improve access to services for people with disabilities, upgrade the quality of those services and secure their viability in the long term. Access to physical rehabilitation services is essential to ensuring that people with physical disabilities feel included and participate fully in society.

MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT

Mental health and psychosocial support covers a wide range of activities undertaken by the ICRC to address psychosocial, psychological and psychiatric problems caused or exacerbated by conflict. Our programs aim to build up the capacity of local agencies to stabilize and improve patients’ mental health and to ensure the emotional well-being of individuals and communities affected by armed conflict and other situations of violence.