Medical Historian Job Description

Medical Histories

Medical historians are involved in the development of exhibits at museums that include the history of medicine. The National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian is a great example of an organization where a medical historian can find work, where they can find work developing public exhibits, cataloging and increasing the accessibility of health-related medical collections, or researching topics for scholarly publication. They research, analyze, record, and interpret the history of medicine as recorded in sources, such as government and hospital records, old medical journals, newspapers and other periodicals, photographs, interviews, films, electronic media, and unpublished manuscripts.

Must know how to keep databases current. Sort and organize the information. Being able to keep and store information in databases is important to historians because they have a lot of research to do.

Since you will be teaching, you must be able to communicate effectively and pass on information. You can learn a lot about the past and advance the field with your knowledge of the past by working with doctors, other historians and teachers. You must be able to relay information effectively.

Medical Histories: A Survey

A medical historian is not a person who studies the history of medicine. They inject an academic and scholarly element into medicine due to their way of doing things. Medical history is divided into different categories such as social history, personal history, family history, and surgical history.

Medical historians are very skilled and handy when it comes to conducting research, analyzing information and writing scholarly articles. The purpose is to look into the past. They will most certainly have knowledge of the history of medicine, but it is more for the purpose of discovery and assimilating the facts for the better understanding of cases.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that historians have a good job outlook. The employment level for historians is expected to increase by 700 during the years 2010 to 2020 which is 18%. Medical historians have knowledge and expertise in many areas that can aid the medical field, so there is a demand for qualified medical historians.

Medical historians have a lot of knowledge about the various fields of medicine. To become a medical historian, a candidate must have an undergraduate degree that focuses on medical science, medical history or a similar academic direction. Medical historians usually have a master's degree or a doctorate.

Historians: A Career in History

A historian is someone who studies, teaches and writes about past events to help understand how mankind has developed. Their duties include looking for resources, interpreting documents and sharing hypotheses. Historians work for academic or government institutions to teach or provide context for current events.

They source documents related to past events, conduct interviews with people who were there, and build a narrative about history. Historians become experts in all aspects of the event or time period when they specialize in a particular topic. They are supposed to convey insights about the past and relate them to the development of society and modern ways of life.

The Historian can have a range of skills that can be helpful depending on the position they are in. Skills will carry over into many roles. Historians make an average of $75,762 per year.

The lower end of the range can be found when a historian is working with a private collector. The range of pay associated with available positions is higher for a Historian for the federal government. Historians are expected to be the result of previous work in the field.

Quality experience can be achieved while still in school, such as internship, volunteer experience, and previous employment at a museum. It is an acceptable example of previous experience to assist with historical research or graduate level research. Historians and Archivists work with historical documents and narratives, and there is often overlap between the two roles.