Health Professions and the State in Europe

The health professions are facing major changes in the international arena and are being compelled to re-examine their organizational and skill base. This book explores key issues relating to these challenges and to the relationship between health care and the state in a range of differing national contexts across the shifting socio-political map of Europe. The editors and contributors address central questions involved in understanding both the history and recent patterns of change and the radical dilemmas and new opportunities facing the health professions. "Health Professions and the State in Europe" is applicable to a wide range of national contexts and a number of health professions--from nursing to midwifery to medicine--presenting a complete overview of the current situation in international health care.

Many professions today are in a state of transition, with changes being imposed on them by governments and other agencies. Focusing on this theme of change Health Professions and the State in Europe explains and illuminates the specific relationship between health professions and the state. The editors and contributors, all experts in the field, present an overview of the current situation in eight different countries in Europe, covering such topical issues as the impact on the health professions of market policies, performance and quality measures, and challenges to professional monopolies and expertise. With its international and comparative perspective, the book enhances our understanding of the interplay between health professions and the state in different national contexts.

Contributors Introduction Part I: Professions and the State: Theoretical Issues 1. Governmentality and the Institutionalization of Expertise 2. Countervailing Powers: A Framework for Professions in Transition Part II: Health Professions and the State in Britain 3. Historical Perspectives 4. Restructuring Health and Welfare Professions in the UK 5. Shifting Spheres of Opportunity 6. Doctors, Peer Review and Quality Assurance 7. The Changing Response of the Medical Profession to Alternative Medicine in Britain 8. The British General Medical Council Health Professions and the State in Continental Europe 9. The Politics of the Spanish Medical Profession 10. The Belgian Medical Profession since the 1980s 11. Midwifery in the Netherlands 12. State Traditions and Medical Professionalization in Scandinavia 13. Medical Uncertainty and Gender-Based Work in the Medical Profession in the Nordic Countries

Terry Johnson, Gerry Larkin, Mike Saks