Much of my significant healthcare experience and background has been gained in some of the most challenging settings including my own troubled country of Liberia. I have necessarily had to demonstrate skills in planning, prioritizing, organization, self-reliance, originality, persistence and in making decisions in stressful circumstances. I have been used to working long hours and being available on a stand-by basis for long periods to ensure adequate cover and am happy to do so.
I have often been required to exercise leadership and/or to act as an effective team member and it is evident to me, from my own experiences, that a good team that is well led is always capable of much more than the individuals who comprise it. I also hold a formal qualification, a degree in HR Management, in addition to my nursing qualification, and this has equipped me to lead teams effectively to achieve their objectives. Naturally, I appreciate an acknowledgement of my own contribution to a team project and I am always keen to ensure that others also receive the acknowledgement due to them.
During a long career, I have worked in various healthcare settings including medical reception, office, out-patients’ departments, public health institutions, ER and in the field and have done so in different cultural environments. I have undertaken a very wide variety of duties in my career to date including patient record maintenance, patient liaison, maintaining drug and equipment inventory, workplace safety monitoring, medical activity report preparation, preparing work schedules, providing health education, local dispute resolution, managing feeding centers, general nursing duties and supervision of junior nursing staff. Much of this experience has been gained while working for UN missions.
I have a long record of successful and productive interaction with clients, colleagues and superiors. I readily seek to carry out instructions given to me in an efficient and timely manner, and am ready to subsume my own views and interests to the objective to be achieved. I have worked and socialized with people of many different cultural and social backgrounds and am aware of the need to be culturally aware and sensitive especially in the field of healthcare. I am widely travelled having worked in or visited many countries including the USA, several countries in both eastern and northern Europe, and in North and West Africa. I enjoy travelling and acquiring information about new cultures and hope to extend these experiences in my future work.
My own cultural background and early professional experience has fired a particular interest in providing health education, and environmental conditions that will promote health, in developing countries. These are, of course, very long term goals that require great patience and determination to affect hearts and minds. It is my long term goal to achieve a Master’s degree in Public Health and to apply the knowledge and skills acquired in the employment of the UN to these ends.
I am sure that applications will be received from many well qualified candidates. However, I genuinely believe that I am an exceptional applicant in that I have significant experience in undertaking many of the responsibilities listed and have demonstrated that I possess many, if not all, of the core competencies and personal traits required of a successful applicant. I am also, not merely willing, but eager to broaden an already wide range of work experiences into any new fields that may be required of me.