Medical Faculty Application
Interested in being a JIRP Medic?
We use the term “Medical Faculty” to describe the wonderful crew of volunteer EMTs, nurses, PA’s, nurse practitioners, and doctors that spend time with the JIRP field courses and research teams. We use “faculty” because this position has a similar schedule and structure as our Teaching and Research faculty, who rotate into the field for several weeks at a time. Additionally, many Medical Faculty teach some wilderness first aid lectures while they are in the field with us.
Below you will find more information about the kinds of health problems our Medical Faculty typically see in the field, possible teaching topics, and how to apply. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Medical Care & Teaching
The two major responsibilities of a volunteer JIRP Medical Faculty are providing medical care and teaching wilderness first aid or medical lectures to participants (usually 1 lecture and 1-2 workshops while you are in the field). A key part of fulfilling those responsibilities is working under the Field Operations Manager(s) to meet the physical, emotional, logistic, and academic/scientific needs of the 60+ person team. This could look like providing mental health support to participants who are struggling, offering lectures to address a particular topic (such as immersion foot, dehydration prevention, or burn care), or working with the field operations team to determine the safest option for evacuating a participant.
Common medical problems we encounter in the field:
Blister care
Immersion foot prevention and treatment
Sunburns and minor kitchen burns
Wound management, including limited application of stitches
Muscle strains
Anxiety
Environmental exposure illnesses and injuries
Triage of more serious musculoskeletal injuries and medical problems, including managing evacuations by foot, snowmachine, and helicopter
Potential teaching topics:
Patient assessment and emergency care
Blister prevention and care
Sunburn prevention and general burn care
Treatment of musculoskeletal injuries
Wound management
Environmental exposure illnesses and injuries (hypothermia, heat exhaustion, etc.)
Nutrition and hydration management (macronutrients, dehydration, etc.)
Expedition Medicine
An average day at JIRP involves many different groups traveling to many different places, sometimes for a few hours and sometimes for multiple days. Because of the remote nature of the Icefield, the Medical Faculty mostly stay in camp or participate in day trips so that we may easily retrieve them should their expertise be required. In JIRP’s case, the “expedition” part of “expedition medicine” refers to working around the Juneau Icefield camps, not multi-day, unsupported ski traverses.
That said, the Medical Faculty get to participate in a host of activities on the Icefield, not the least of which is learning from our engaging cast of Teaching Faculty, researchers, and students. Other expedition activities include:
Pitching in on camp chores (cook crew, minor camp maintenance, etc.).
Attending safety training exercises to learn basic and intermediate technical alpine skills (skiing, steep snow terrain techniques, roped team travel, glacier rescue systems, etc.).
Participating in single-day field trips with team members to explore different parts of the Icefield.
Qualifications
EMT or higher level training in medicine.
Agreement to abide by the JIRP Code of Conduct.
Dedication to support the mission of JIRP, including field education and Earth science research.
An active Alaska state medical license, or willingness to obtain a temporary Alaska state medical license with support from JIRP.
Required
RN, PA, or MD, with a specialty in wilderness medicine, emergency medicine, or primary care.
Backcountry experience, especially in climbing and/or skiing.
Preferred
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.