Summer jobs, Student jobs

Position: Research Assistant: Indoor Heat Health in Health Care Buildings
Type: age 30 & under / summer
Organization: Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia (in person)

Organisation Overview: The Coalition is Canada’s premier green health care resource network; a national voice and catalyst for environmental change. The Coalition supports the Canadian health care sector to integrate environmentally responsible practices into the delivery of health care. Our areas of focus include climate change resilience and mitigation, energy efficiency and conservation, circular economy, waste reduction, safer chemicals, environmentally preferable purchasing, low carbon transportation, healthy and sustainable food, and green leadership. greenhealthcare.ca

The Project: The impacts of climate change are being seen widely across Canada, including health impacts caused by heat events. These impacts are disproportionately felt by vulnerable populations, including the elderly, individuals living with co-morbidities and living alone, as well as those who experience marginalization.

Position Overview: This project aims to better understand the reality of excessive indoor heat in several health care settings, including hospitals, long-term care, clinics, and home care. Qualitative data collection will include surveys and interviews of health care workers, health care providers, and residents/patients regarding indoor heat impacts. Quantitative data will be collected using data loggers for temperature and humidity. These data will be collected and analyzed and used to help select practical and actionable indoor heat adaptation interventions across Canadian health care sites to determine how effective these are in reducing the health impacts of high indoor heat. This approach will help health care facilities, health care workers (HCW), and organizations representing at-risk/vulnerable populations prepare for extreme indoor heat and the potential cascading and compounding effects of concurrent events, such as infectious disease outbreaks, droughts, floods, wildfires, smoke, and power outages. We are looking for two Research Assistants (RAs) to join our team during the summer for a unique opportunity to contribute to climate change resilience research.

Key job responsibilities:

• Conduct indoor heat assessments (quantitative data) at health care facilities under the guidance of the Director of Implementation.
• Conduct surveys and interviews (qualitative data) with clinical and non-clinical staff and residents/patients
• Collect and analyze qualitative survey data from health care workers and residents/patients and summarize results into reports
• Collect and analyze quantitative data such as temperature and humidity, from health care facility rooms
• Undertake research on cost-effective heat adaptation interventions to mitigate the impacts of heatwaves for possible implementation in resident/patient rooms
• Support knowledge translation activities and contribute to reports.

To qualify for this job, the applicants MUST:

• a. Be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person on whom refugee protection has been conferred under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act* and;
• b. Be legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations.
• c. Have strong research and writing skills.
• d. Be comfortable engaging with stakeholders in health care settings.
• e. Pass a criminal record check.

Applicants should:

• Have an interest in sustainability, climate science, and health equity.
• Be familiar with research methodologies, survey techniques, and statistical analysis.
• Possess strong analytical, organizational, and communication skills.
• Be able to work both independently and in a team.
• Be willing to travel to clinical sites (mileage/transit reimbursement available).

How to apply:

Please send resume and cover letter as one PDF document to Jill Girard at Jill@greenhealthcare.ca Subject line: Job Application – Research Assistant: Indoor Heat-Health in Health Care Buildings

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The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is an equality opportunity employer. First Nations, Inuit and Métis applicants, applicants with disabilities, members of the 2SLGBTQAI+ community and members of visible minorities are encouraged to apply. We thank all applicants for their interest but we will only be able to respond to those who are invited for an interview.