GSK Fellow | Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics
The Task Force for Global Health is offering a fellowship opportunity to a graduate student from June – August 2021.
Fellows will have an opportunity to:
- Work as part of an ongoing Task Force program/department
- Become exposed to a pressing global health issue
- Become familiar with working with coalitions and collaborative concepts
- Work with a supervisor who is interested in mentoring
TFGH Background:
- The Task Force for Global Health, founded nearly 40 years ago to advance health equity, works with partners in more than 150 countries to eliminate diseases, ensure access to vaccines and essential medicines, and strengthen health systems to protect populations.
- Expertise includes neglected tropical diseases and other infectious diseases; vaccine safety, distribution and access; and health systems strengthening. For more information, visit www.taskforce.org.
BACKGROUND:
- This practicum will be based in the Task Force’s Focus Area for Compassion and Ethics (FACE), www.taskforce.org/face.
- FACE provides ethical support to Task Force programs and explores key areas of importance to ethics in global health.
- FACE enjoys a particularly close working relationship with Task Force programs that are focused in the area of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which are burdens for many developing countries, and for which control and elimination raise important ethical challenges, including preventing unintended harm (safety).
- FACE is actively engaged in promoting NTD safety with WHO and other partners, and in developing ethics training materials with TEPHINET, a network of field epidemiology training programs (see, for example, https://www.tephinet.org/practical-ethics-for-veterinarians).
- In addition, FACE is globally recognized for its work to promote compassion and resilience in global health practice, and is the recipient of a planning grant from Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF) to understand the role of compassion as the key to human flourishing in the face of suffering.
Project: The projects to be undertaken in this fellowship will focus on one or more of the following:
- Developing ethics training modules for field epidemiologists and others engaged in NTD control and elimination programs; these modules, developed in collaboration with TEPHINET and WHO, and patterned on modules already developed, will address several key ethical issues in NTD programming and global health, including informed consent, duty to care, and scarce resources (see: recent article).
- Developing the foundations for an ethics program in One-World Health, in collaboration with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), TEPHINET, and others.
- Developing a full research proposal for submission to TWCF on compassion, suffering, and human flourishing, in collaboration with partners at Harvard, Emory, and elsewhere; this was invited by TWCF and as part of a planning grant awarded to FACE.
- Exploring the feasibility of chaplaincy in global health as part of a larger effort to address burnout and moral injury in the global health workforce.
Activities and Opportunities: The Fellow will work with the supervisor and other staff on the following (numbers refer to projects listed above):
- NTD ethics training modules. Conduct background desk research and help develop content for ethics training modules for field epidemiologists and others engaged in NTD control and elimination programs.
- One-Health ethics. Participate in desk research and conduct interviews with leaders in One-Health, environmental ethics, and animal health to document, categorize, and understand ethical dilemmas in One-Health, in collaboration with FAO and other organizations.
- Compassion and flourishing. Conduct exploratory conversations and desk research to develop a full research proposal for TWCF on compassion, suffering, and human flourishing, in collaboration with our research collaborators.
- Global health chaplaincy. Conduct desk research and interview leaders of health and first-responder organizations that have chaplains on staff (including the military, fire departments, Department of Homeland Security, hospitals) and global health organizations that don’t (including the USPHS) to understand the impact of chaplaincy in addressing burnout and moral injury; explore the feasibility of chaplaincy in global health.
Responsibilities include:
- Conduct background research using the internet, university library resources, and other sources, under the direction of the supervisor and in collaboration with partnering organizations.
- Conduct interviews with global health, scholars, and organizational leaders on projects described above.
- Document findings of exploratory research and interviews in periodic reports and updates.
- Incorporate findings of exploratory research on NTD ethics modules into a draft “storyboard” or outline of an ethics training module on informed consent or other ethical dilemmas (along the lines of modules already developed.
- Do all of the above under the direction of the supervisor.
- Drafting one or more ethics modules for further development
In addition, the GSK Fellow will:
- Compile and summarize findings and fellowship experience in a report for review by the Director, FACE.
- Complete GSK Fellowship Program Satisfaction Survey.
- Participate fully as a member of the Task Force for Global Health by contributing, assisting, and participating in projects, activities, and initiatives as requested.
The fellowship will provide a stipend of up to $5,000 paid bi-weekly at $15.00 per hour.
Application Requirements: Fellowship applicants should meet the following qualifications:
- Student enrolled in public health or ethics graduate program
- Experience in healthcare, public health, or ethics.
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Strong work ethic.
Applications should include:
- A cover letter stating the applicant’s area of interest in public health that includes an overview or summary of related projects, experiences, or publications produced by the applicant (maximum one page)
- Resume
- At minimum 2 letters of recommendation from instructors or supervisors in related positions that details the performance of the individual
Completed application packages should be emailed to njoseph@taskforce.com and daddiss@taskforce.org by the deadline: May 14, 2021.