Applied Anthropology - Essay

Applied Anthropology is the use of anthropological knowledge and skills to solve practical problems; the application of anthropological expertise to the needs of society. It is also referred to as the fifth subfiled of anthropology, which works within physical, cultural, archeological and linguistic anthropology, to faciliate positive outcomes in troubled araeas of human need.
The work of Dr. Mikel Hogan interested me the most; I have never before given a thought as to how applied anthropology can positively influence and change the staff of a large hospital. The challenges faced by the medical filed, as described above, do not affect only the nurses, but also patients, the board of directors, administrators and employees; fewer people are entering the field of nursing and those already in the field are leaving at an alarming rate, creating a nursing crisis. Dr. Mikel Hogan, an applied cultural anthroplogists, is shown working with the staff of a large hospital. Currently, there is a critical nursing shortages in the United States. According to Dr.Hogan, the studies on the nursing crises show that work environment in United States hospitals have become hostile to the recruitment and retention of American nurses. Nurses are overworked because of cutbacks in personnel made to increase the profit base of hospitals, and daily work relationships between hospital personnel are strained.
At first, the study looked at units in the hospital with high turnover rates; when there, working wih nurses, the experts found that the problem is much broader, thus the study opened up to include other units, such as managment and administration. The enviroment -- nurses were not able to take breaks and when they did, their pagers would go off soon after; many did not bother taking breaks at all. The nurses were overworked, yet they did not take vacations and were really concerned of their patients. Vacation, as mentioned in the video, is a structural issue; the hospital