The Struggle by Allied Health Practitioners to Achieve Professional Status - Assignment Example

According to the Services for Australian Rural and Remote Allied Health [SARRAH] (2007), allied health practitioners are university trained professionals who use their skills in helping their clients regain their optimum individual functions. These allied health practitioners help in a patient’s recovery and aid in emergency care and treatment (Department of Health, 2010). There are a variety of allied professionals that include dietitians, osteopaths, occupational therapists, podiatrists and audiologists (Johnson & Graham, 2005).

Even with their importance in the field of health care, a study (Borthwick, Nancarrow, Vernon, & Walker, 2009) showed that allied health practitioners tend to experience frequent job burnout, have lower self-esteem, and recruitment and retention problems compared to other healthcare practitioners in the UK and Australia. These problems then contribute to the fact that allied health practitioners perceive themselves as having lesser professional standing in the society and in the healthcare field (Borthwick, Nancarrow, Vernon, & Walker, 2009).

Theoretical Perspective Symbolic interactionism is a sociological theory that centers on the manner of interaction of individuals through different symbols. These symbols are depicted in society through roles, regulations, words, and visual communication (Plunkett, n.d.). Interactionist theorists are focused on the people and not the society. They consider humans as actors in a play who can adjust to every scene because of their capability to interpret symbols. In this manner, human beings or an individual understand actions as symbols and perceive other people as symbolic objects (McClelland, 2000).

The symbolic interactionism perspective defines the allied health and nursing profession as a “dirty work.” It is “dirty” in a manner wherein the work is viewed with low regard, as difficult, and unpleasant. However, these jobs are necessary to fulfill the basic human life activities (Drew, 2007). In comparison to the so-called high-rank professionals in the healthcare industry, these jobs are considered “dirty” because these professionals come in great contact with elderly patients and patients who demand lesser technological skills in recovery (Drew, 2007).

On the other hand, with the help of symbolic interactionism, the struggle of allied health practitioners to achieve professional status can be understood with the “The Looking Glass Self.” This is in accordance to the concept of Cooley that people react and interact in the manner of how people appear to them. Therefore, because people or the society impose the perception that allied health practitioners have lesser standing in society, which is shown in roles, regulations, words and visual communication, they then tend to look at themselves as what the society perceives them to be (Morine, 2009).

It can then be derived that the struggle of these allied health practitioners is against the status inflicted by the society on them. To be able to achieve professional status these allied health practitioners are struggling for, it is then advised for them to acquire related skills, which will enhance their current field of specialization. This will add to their current status, which will be a door to the enhancement of their professional status in the society. They will also increase their range of patients, which