Story overview
I have found my background and skills in anthropology very useful for working in both theoretical and applied health work. I like to think of the role of an anthropologist working in this field as one of critical engagement. Not being a health professional, being an 'outsider' is useful rather than isolating. It makes it easier to bring a fresh eye to bear on practical issues and research questions, to approach things from a different angle, which can be complementary and useful as well as critical. I have found health professionals, especially midwives, very welcoming and keen to involve anthropologists because of this. A number of my students and colleagues have been keen to use ethnographic approaches to research, because they recognise ways in which this approach can help them to address particular types of questions - such as what shapes the experience of illness or health care, the role of the context of practice, why change is difficult
