Chapter 11 - Medical Profession

Question 1

(3) distinct ways to hink about professions & professionalization

Answer 1

1) professions considered occupations with specific characteristics/traits
2) professions can be viewed as result of processes of occupational change over time
3) notion of the profession can be considered as ideology

Question 2

The view of the **Profession as Occupation **is called the Trait Approach

• basis is that a profession is an accumulation of traits (7)

Answer 2

1) determines its own standards of education
2) stringent educational requirements
3) practice involves legal recognition through license
4) licensing/admission standards determined by members of profession
5) legislation regarding practice is mostly shaped by profession
6) characterized by relatively high power/prestige/income
7) relatively free of lay control/evaluation

Question 3

Profession as Process

steps to becoming a professional

Answer 3

1) members engage in **full-time work **
2) establish relationship with training/education program
3) establish association
4) gain legal status
5) construct code of ethics

Question 4

Profession as Process - Johnson

Answer 4

describes professions with respect to process but focuses on how occupational groups come to think of themselves as professions as they increase in power

Question 5

From Johnson’s viewpoint that *occupational groups come to think of themselves as professions as they increase in power, *the fundamental characteristic of a profession is? (2)

Answer 5

the ability of a group to impose:

• its perspectives
• the necessity for its services upon its clients

Question 6

Professional power arises out of?

Which stems from?

Answer 6

uncertainty in relationship between client & professional

• uncertainty stems social distance between 2 parties

Question 7

(3) variables determine degree of power held by a professional group

Answer 7

1) the more **esoteric **the knowledge base, the less accessible it is to the public
2) the greater the **social distance (relative prestige of occupation within labor force) **between client & professional (income, social class)
3) the greater the **homogeneity **of the professional group in contrast to the **heterogeneity **of client group
* (ability to organize) *

…the greater the power of the profession

Question 8

The **Allopathic Medical Profession **achieved the level of dominance it has come to enjoy by (3) distinct processes

Answer 8

1) subordination
2) limitation
3) exclusion

Question 9

1) subordination

Answer 9

process whereby potentially/actually competing professions come to work under direct control of doctors

Question 10

2) limitation

Answer 10

illustrated by occupations such as dentistry, optemetry & pharmacy

• not under direct control of allopathic practitioners but indirectly controlled through legal restrictions

Question 11

3) exclusion

Answer 11

process whereby certain occupations that are NOT licensed are denied official legitimacy & tax-based financial support come to be considered ‘alternative’ practices

Question 12

Profession as Ideology

Answer 12

Profession has (4) characteristics:

1) universalism
2) functional specificity
3) affective neutrality
4) collective orientation

Question 13

1) Universalism

Answer 13

physician is expected to apply universalistic, scientifically based standards to all patients

• not to differentiate between patients based on social differences

Question 14

2) Functional Specificity

Answer 14

requires that physician not offer advice to patient on non-medical matters

Question 15

3) Affective Neutrality

Answer 15

physician expected to refrain from emotional involvement

Question 16

4) A Collective Orientation

Answer 16

physician is expected to exhibit **a collective orientation **- to provide service to others out of a sense of calling to the profession & altruistic desire to serve others

Question 17

Deprofessionalization

Answer 17

increased control from insurance companies, government billing bureacracies

demystification of medical knowledge through internet

• increasing costs without paralleled improvement in health

Question 18

1st Canadian Medical Schol

Answer 18

1824 - Montreal Med Institution

(became faculty of med of Mcgill University in 1829)

Question 19

consequences of medical school were that physicians-in-training became aware of importance of (2) dominant values

Answer 19

1) **clinical experience - **belief that much of medical practice is based on art of determining (from complex interpersonal cues & interactions with patients) the nature of disease & appropriate treatment

2) **medical responsibility - **

Question 20

Technical vs Moral Mistakes

Answer 20

technical - expected in medical practice & easily forgiven

moral - severly reprehensible