Job Description

This job requires a dual duties and responsibilities to both medical anthropology and medical practice. For the physician assistant half, the job will require the ability to diagnose and treat injuries, examine patients, prescribe medications, and perform different medical procedures. This job would rely heavily on being hands on and interacting with patients, particularly in the clinical setting. This job will also rely heavily on having knowledge of different illnesses and diseases, how they affect the human body, and the different treatments that they involve.

 

 The roles involved in the medical anthropology aspect of this career rely on structuring interviews geared towards understanding health disparities. It will require researching and analyzing how culture impacts health and vise versa. It will also investigate how the structure of health care systems are affected. In addition to medical anthropology, some knowledge of cultural anthropology will also be required as it will serve as a foundation for understanding many of the research focuses.

 

In addition to these requirements, treatment and research studies will also require time to be spent serving several populations and areas. These will include rural and low-income areas, such as North Carolina. It will also have the opportunities for practicing and researching in underserved countries, where there is marginalization of certain groups of people based on sexual orientation, race, and socioeconomic status. This will allow for a career that has an opportunity in creating community-based treatment strategies and influence legislation to improve health care for these groups of people.

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This job also has the optional opportunity to work for humanitarian organizations. Within this opportunity, medical anthropology and medical treatment can be blended to provide rapid research and medical assistance in in-hospitable environments around the world. However, a strong suggestion for the optional opportunity though is to remember that as a professional you are stepping into someone’s life, not the other way around. It is also a strong suggestion to remember the groups in which you are trying to target and to take responsibility to maintain humanitarian focus on them.

 

In addition to these responsibilities and requirements, a degree in a health-related field and anthropology is required. Graduate programs, such as medical school, or physician-assistant programs to start, are required as well in order to obtain adequate training in providing medical treatments. Other graduate programs that are strongly suggested are Master’s programs in medical anthropology or cultural anthropology.