In the health care setting, deprofessionalization refers to the process
in which an individual makes a shift from a professional status to a
non-professional status. Thus this takes place when doctors become
less of physicians and more of service providers for the patients. Due
to such a trend, patients are considered to be the customers of these
service providers. The concept of deprofessionalization in the health
care setting does not eliminate the original profession of the
individuals. This is because they continue to make use of their
knowledge, skills as well as expertise while interacting with their
customers and delivering services to them. Technically
deprofessionalization can be defined as the loss of the distinctive
occupational qualities that an individual possesses. However, in the
health care domain, deprofessionalization does not lead to loss of
health care-related skills and knowledge by doctors. They continue
to use these skills and capabilities while interacting and engaging
with the service users (Deprofessionalization. Deprofessionalization -
an overview | ScienceDirect Topics, 2021).
In the future deprofessionalization in health care would not lead to
the elimination of the original profession of health care professionals
such as doctors. This is because the deprofessionalization process
cannot lead to the removal of the years that doctors have gone
through in the medical practice in order to acquire knowledge and
education relating to health care aspects. In the professional sense,
their mode of delivering their services might change in the future.
However, it cannot lead to the loss of the education and training that
they have obtained over the years while studying in the health care
discipline. The concept of consumerism is likely to continue to mold
the relationship that exists between patients and doctors by leading
to the decrease in distance between them (Coburn, 2015). Even in
the future, deprofessionalization in the health care setting cannot
lead to the elimination of their original profession and the acquired
skills.
References
Coburn, D. (2015). Medical Profession. https://doi.org/10.1016/B0-
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