If you've seen the ads requesting funds for impoverished children in other countries — and who hasn't? — then you know the tug on your heartstrings these images can have. It's hard to believe that amounts as small as one dollar can improve someone else's well-being, but we've learned that a little can go a long way in some economies.
If financial donations can have such an impact, wouldn't it be even better to work in a developing nation, providing your skills on a daily basis?
Maybe, and maybe not. At least that's the message given by Patricia Ohmans and Garth Osborn in their book "Finding Work in Global Health" (Health Advocates Press, 2005, $19.50). In this slim volume, which is actually a how-to guide for getting a job in global health, the authors offer several cautionary notes.
With nearly four decades of international work experience between them, Osborn and Ohmans wrote this book (first published in 1999) to answer the questions they and others in the field frequently encounter. In so doing, they gave voice not only to the deeply satisfying benefits of the work but also to its downsides, which include contracting diseases, dodging bullets and not being accepted in the community you're trying to serve.
More daunting, perhaps, is the marketplace reality: There aren't that many of these jobs, and they're not so easy to get. Despite the increasing investment in health care infrastructure in developing nations and the marked increase in international agencies serving this need, funding — and, hence, paid positions — lag far behind.
An added emphasis on using local providers to serve their own communities also limits the long-term prognosis for outside do-gooders.
And yet, the authors clearly feel this work is valuable and richly rewarding. In a recent series of talks, Ohmans balanced the challenges and the rewards of this work while helping her audiences explore career ideas in global health.
"It's important to keep in mind what's important," she said. "It isn't you."
Ohmans offered this blunt advice while explaining that job-seekers in this field must closely examine not only their own motivations but also those of any organization with which they seek to align themselves. For example, projects undertaken by a global health agency should be sustainable by the community after the visiting health workers leave, and the projects should integrate well with the community's culture, resources and values.
She also noted that job-seekers who want to enter the field to "find themselves," to share their religious views or to earn a lot of money need to rethink their understanding of the work. In her presentations and in the book, Ohmans offers ideas for learning more about this work and your possible role in the field. These ideas include visits to others who are doing this work, volunteer service projects and classes on the subject.
The book is rich with other kinds of lists as well, including The Top 10 Global Health Myths; Six Ways to "Do" Global Health; Why People Choose to Work in Global Health; and Eight Types of Global Health Groups. There are even checklists for your résumé and transferable skills and a packing list for living overseas. Wisely, the authors have included a chapter on preparing to return to the United States, including suggestions for finding re-entry jobs.
From listening to Ohmans and reading this book, I learned that working in the growing field of global health will not depend on having a medical or nursing degree and will not necessarily require travel to another country.
Ohmans is clear in her advice to get a master's in public health if you plan to build a career in this field. But working directly with patients as a doctor or nurse is not the only way to make an impact; indeed, these opportunities may decrease as local providers are trained in the hands-on work.
Not leaving the country may seem a little counterintuitive, but it makes sense. After all, "global" includes the United States, and we do have a huge need for health care for the poor in our own backyard. In addition to providing direct service in the United States, it is possible to work here with refugees from other countries or to work behind the scenes to coordinate services elsewhere.
If you're drawn to the idea of global health work, start with this book. And give yourself plenty of time; this one isn't a quick-change career path.
- Amy Lindgren owns Prototype Career Service, a career consulting firm in St. Paul, Minn. She can be reached at alindgren@prototypecare rservice.com or at 1071 W. Seventh St., St. Paul, MN 55102.