I had to really think about this week's discussion and the
deprofessionalization in health care. As I have come to understand,
deprofessionalization refers to the loss of power of a position and no
longer needing the original profession. The lose of the original
profession won't necessarily happen in healthcare, however, there
are many new positions that arise due to shortages and with this
comes the loss of power. The example given to us from our
Professor, is the term nurse, because now we have Advance Nursing,
registered nurse, licence practical nurse (LPN) nursing assistant,
medical assistant (MAs). These terms can be used interchangeably
sometimes, which really devalues the term. I do think all of these
professions are needed and warranted, however, should not be
interchangeable. When I worked in the field, I worked specifically
with a Physicians Assistant. He was great and our patients loved him,
but they would call him "doctor' and it always bugged me, because he
was NOT a doctor. It totally devalued the physicians that we did
work for. We now call people who work in healthcare as "healthcare
providers". We throw this around and lump everyone into one
category. Physicians use to enjoy the prestige, power and autonomy
but now many doctors have loss their since of power and autonomy
due to the control from corporate entities (Marlow, 1997).
I believe this will continue. As our healthcare moves toward
institutionalize medicine, healthcare providers such as physicians,
physician assistants, advance nurse practitioners, etc will have to
abide by what the corporate institution says then what medicine
suggests. "Economic, technological, and societal pressures will
hasten and augment emerging low price immediate access where
healthcare providers with little to no close supervision by physicians.
This will result in a public image that all healthcare professions
expertise and advice are equally appropriate" (Nasca, & Thomas,
2015).
References:
J. Nasca, T., & W. Thomas, C. (2015). Medicine in 2035: Selected
insights from ACGME's scenario planning. Journal of Graduate Medical
Education, 7(1), 139–142. https://doi.org/10.4300/jgme-d-14-
00740.1
