Contemporary models of change in the health professions

This article reviews the special position that health professionals have occupied and the ways in which changes threaten the foundations of professional work. The application of modern management principles to health care runs the risk of overriding the 'action orientation' that is a defining component of professional work. One goal of health workforce design should be the engineering of opportunities for the preservation of 'professional voice' as a countervailing force to ensure high quality health care. Contemporary models of change applied to health care workforce include: (1) the system of professions model in which securing and maintaining jurisdiction are the mechanisms that professions employ to sustain their position, (2) a strategic adaptation model by which professions attempt to adjust to changing environments, (3) a model of redesigning patient care which applies Total Quality Management (TQM) and other 'industrial techniques' to the health care workplace, and, (4) model of 'consumer sovereignty' in which groups of citizens come together to determine the nature of care services and professional work, with the participation of the organizations and providers.