Changing professional identities : the evolution of professional delineations in the healthcare sector

Recent Australian research suggests that professional boundaries are not necessarily bounded and static, but reconstituted in response to reform. An examination of professional identities within the healthcare sector suggests that societal and political change serve to liquefy professional delineations. Yet, how do these changes affect traditional labour divisions; and how do the forces for change affect the reconstruction of professional identity? This paper demonstrates that organisational pressures are changing the historically anchored medical profession and the emerging nursing profession. Such change is also influenced by the void between clinicians cum managers and clinicians. Because the success of healthcare reform is contingent on professional interdependence, it is important that the evolution of professional delineations within the sector is understood.