Analysis of Anatomy Education Based Job Openings
Authors: Mueller Caroline M. , Notebaert Andrew J. 
Published: June 2021

Due to the increasing demand of healthcare educators, the necessity of programs with integration of pedagogy with healthcare sciences is imminent. However, there are relatively few programs integrating anatomy courses and pedagogical programs. By analyzing the current job market, professional programs can gain a sense of the need for anatomy professional graduates capable of teaching in a variety of areas. This study looked to provide a current job scope of the positions related to anatomy education. Data were gathered from open job descriptions over a one year timeframe. Sources for these anatomy‐related jobs and careers in higher academia came from open positions listed on the applicable websites of the American Association of Anatomists (AAA), the American Association of Clinical Anatomists (AACA), and HigherEdJobs.com. The search focused on professions listed under the descriptors of “anatomy professor” and “anatomy education.” The categories collected were the level of position (instructor, assistant, associate, or full‐time), faculty type (tenure or non‐tenure track), type of institution (undergraduate, graduate, or professional school), required qualifications, required years of experience, expected courses to teach, and research. Data were categorized and frequency counts were tabulated. In total, 122 open positions were reviewed from postings listed between November 2016 to November 2017. Of the jobs listed, 70% were anatomy related (n = 86), and 30% were not directly related to anatomy (n = 36). Of the anatomy related jobs, 44% were tenure‐track, 7% were non‐tenure track, and 49% did not specify. Also, half of the anatomy jobs (n = 43) had research based requirements with 11 of these requiring grant funding for projects. Predominantly, the anatomy job listings were posted from undergraduate institutions (59%) seeking candidates to lecture anatomy along with other biology courses (67%), 10 positions required teaching a biology‐related lab, with six of the openings being cadaveric dissection labs. Fifty‐two percent of the anatomy education positions were looking to fill assistant professor roles, 16% seeking instructor positions, 22% associate professors, and about 10% did not specify. Thirty‐eight percent of these positions were specified as full‐time roles. Within the anatomy‐related occupations, the majority of educational positions required a PhD degree or equivalent (n = 66). Based on the brief window of review, there are multiple anatomy based job vacancies, with the majority being research‐affiliated anatomy assistant roles and some of those requiring prospective grant funding. Future directions for this study are to examine the type of research required for grant funding, either bench or educational research, which was often not specified in these brief descriptions. Also, examination of the job listings on the type of teaching methods such as active‐learning, lecture, etc. would provide insight to incorporate certain pedagogical classes into PhD programs. Additionally, the courses required of potential faculty members to teach can be analyzed so that PhD programs can fulfill the demands of the market.

Support or Funding Information

This study was not funded.

This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.