Medical Faculty Application
Interested in joining our JIRP Medical Faculty Team?
The JIRP Medical Faculty is a core part of the field expedition, responsible for teaching practical wilderness first aid, scenario planning, and risk management to staff and students. This role, which generally prefers EMT-level training or higher and is supported by a partnership with the University of Vermont Medical Center, is designed to prepare JIRP participants to care for themselves in an austere wilderness environment across a longitudinal field season curriculum. Medical faculty will be provided a portion of a broader curriculum from which to teach and are expected to come prepared to lead lectures and workshops.
Medical Faculty have a similar schedule and structure as our Teaching and Research faculty - they commit to participating in the field with JIRP for two or more weeks at a time and being immersed in the expedition. Medical Faculty teach wilderness first aid topics in both practical and formal settings and contribute to other daily expedition duties.
Common topics our medical faculty may teach include:
Patient assessment and emergency care
Blister prevention and care
Sunburn prevention and general burn care
Stabilization of musculoskeletal injuries
Wound management
Environmental exposure illnesses and injuries (hypothermia, heat exhaustion, etc.)
Nutrition and hydration management (macronutrients, dehydration, etc.)
Immersion foot prevention and treatment
Muscle strains, pain, and bruising care
Anxiety care
Emergency response preparedness, planning, ethics, and systems.
Risk management of injuries during evacuation
Expedition Expectations
An average day at JIRP involves many different groups traveling to many different places, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for multiple days. You may join groups on minor excursions, but will generally be based at one of our main camps where teaching is based. JIRP provides high quality field teaching facilities, including white boards, digital presentation capability, laptop charging, etc. Participants and camps have well provisioned first aid kits which can be used as teaching tools, or if you prefer, you can bring your own specialized teaching tools. Medical Faculty are able to participate in a host of activities on the Icefield, including learning from our scientific faculty, researchers, and students, and local field trips near our main camps.
You will generally sleep in your own sleeping bag on a rustic wooden bunk, with some limited potential for time in a tent-based camp. You will contribute to general camp chores including cooking, camp maintenance, food stocking, etc. You’ll be expected to attend field travel safety training exercises to learn basic and intermediate glacier travel skills.
Qualifications
EMT, Paramedic, RN, PA/NP, MD/DO, or equivalent with a specialty in wilderness medicine, emergency medicine, or primary care preferred.
Backcountry experience, especially in climbing and/or skiing.
Agreement to abide by the JIRP Code of Conduct.
Dedication to support the mission of JIRP, including field education and Earth science research.
Apply Now
To apply, please submit the application below. The application will not save your progress, so we recommend you download the application preview, write your responses in a document, and then copy-paste them into the application.
We will review applications on a rolling basis through late Winter and early Spring. Suitable candidates will advance to a second round of the application process, which will involve references and an interview with JIRP Leadership Team.