role of health professionals Flashcards
Health professionals
Members of the medical profession are amongst the most prestigious and well-paid groups in society.
Barber 1963
Argues that professionals are very important for society because they deal with people when they re particularly vulnerable positions. It’s in the best interest of society to have the best people, who maintain the highest standards to provide medical care. These people must be competent people who maintain the highest standards to provide medical care.
Barber -trait 1
They have a theoretical basis to their knowledge.
- doctors have a full understanding of medical theories about the body. This allows them t make independent decisions about the causes of illness and the best cure.
Barber- trait 2
They are fully trained to the highest standard possible.
- this means only the most intelligent can enter and succeed.
Barber-trait 3
Competence is tested by examination.
- there is no favouritisms and doctors are in their position because of their ability alone
Barber trait 4
The profession has a strict code of ethics. Doctors deal with people at their most vulnerable and the code of ethics ensures that n patient is exploited.
Barber trait 5
They are regulated and controlled through an organisation. The general medical council- decides who can enter the profession and has the power to punish and exclude for misconduct
Webarian approach
All occupational groups are constantly competing with one another to improve their prestige and financial bargaining power. Rather than being constructed for the good of the community, the medical profession is constructed for the good of themselves. This perspective states that the medical profession is looking after its own interest as well as those of the patients.
Webarian- educational barriers
Professionals construct a series of specialist educational courses and qualifications to imit the number of entrants
Webarian- the production of knowledge and esoteric knowledge
This means creating an apparently complex body of knowledge which must be placed at the hands of experts.
Webarian - maintenance of privilege
The professional group will fight all attempts to have others impose any control over them. So doctors will demand clinical freedom- the right to do what they think best and they will fight any attempts to hand over part of their work to prescribe others such as allowing nurses to prescribe medicine.
Waitzkin 1979
Explains traits rather than imply justifying the high status of doctors, are used by the medical profession as a barrier to prevent others from entering. This criticism was for a long time supported by the facts that entry to medicine remained largely the preserve of makes from higher social class backgrounds.
Parry and parry 1976- webarians
Suggest that doctors set up professional organisations such as the BMA, the GMC and the royal colleges as part of an occupational strategy that aims to control the medical labour market to their advantage. They argue that in pursuit of greater financial rewards, doctors, via both the GMC and BMA have deliberately acquired the following professional characteristics.
What did Marxist navarro say regarding the role of the medical profession
Argues that doctors are agents of the bourgeoise or ruling class and the high status and salaries that they enjoy are the rewards they receive from the ruling class for playing their part in maintaining economic inequality and exploitation. Doctors work on behalf of the ruling class in a number of ways.
What did doyal 1979 say regarding the role of the medical professionals
Argues that doctors and the health service have a legitimation role. They promote ruling class ideology by persuading the bulk of the population that capitalism cares for by providing free medical care
Techniques to exclude women from the medical profession
1885- a law was passed that legally recognised medicine as a closed profession. Women were not legally prevented from entering the medical profession but the values of Victorian Britain and the education system generally excluded women from becoming doctors.
According to witz
The male dominated medical profession was successful in excluding females for over half a century through exclusion and demarcation. To combat these techniques, women must use inclusion and dual closure.
Michel Foucault
In every society, groups are battling to look after their own interests. The best way of doing this is to get control of what is regarded as truth or knowledge. Groups seek to create an overall framwork of thought and ideas. If other people believe that what you say is true and what others say is false, them you have a high chance of getting them to do what you want.
What sociological term did Michel Foucault coin
Th medical/ clinical gaze
Late modernity
The claim to doctors sole expertise on health matters has been challenged by a wide range of groups. Complementary and alternative medicine including homeopathy, herbal remedies, acupuncture. Giddens has argued that this challenge is the result of the development of late modernity which are relevant to health.
Leotard postmodernist
Argues that in the postmodern age, meta-narratives have been rejected in favour of smaller narratives which contain relative truths. Medical science is one meta narrative whilst alternative approaches to healing disease prevention and health promotion are the smaller narratives
Cadario- postmodernist
Post modernists are skeptical about biomedicine and because of this there is a decline in confidence in experts and too much misinformation about health and medicine being made available via the internet.
The role of globalised health industry
The NHS and medical progression are shaped by global influences such as migration. A significant number of doctors an nurses work in the NHS because of global migration.
Medical brain drain
The departure of educated or professional people from one country, economic sector or field to another usually for better pay or living conditions.
Law 2006
Argues that global multinational pharmaceutical companies final to properly address healthcare issues.
Medical tourism - lunt et al 2011
Addresses the phenomenon of medical tourism which is the movement of patients across boarders in the pursuit of medical treatment and health. Patients from richer, developed nations are travelling to less developed countries to access health services for treatments such as dental care, cosmetic surgery, hip replacements, fertility treatment, cardiovascular surgery and lifesaving transplants.
Consumer choice
Health decisions are no longer solely made by the medical profession- individual consumers make their own decision. It reflects the interest in the construction of the body and identify through consumption and lifestyle leading to the increased demand of cosmetic surgery and dental surgery. It tends to be accessible for the more affluent.
Lupton 2012
Points out that online technology allows anyone with access to a computer to view highly detailed images of the image of the body and there are many health apps available on phone stores.
Why is the public losing confidence in the medical profession
E-scaped medicine has been used to describe the recent shift in the location of medicine. More patients are questioning the knowledge and decision making of doctors and losing confidence in them. Recorded 10000 complaints about the general medical council in 2012.
Marketisation of healthcare
The process whereby services like education and health, that were previously controlled and run the the state have government or local council reduced and become subject to the free market forces of supply and demand based on competition and consumer choice.
Critiquing medical tourism
Medical tourism creates inequality in access to healthcare. Poorer countries cater for the medical tourists from the developed world and tend to meet the needs of the tourists rather than their own population. Public doctors may opt to work in the private sector to make money with tourists.
