Examination of change in the medical profession from the perspective of sociology of professions

Medical profession is a high-status established profession with high-grade autonomy that requires a long and exhausting formal education process as well as mastery and expertise. Today, along with neoliberal policies and the discourses that are in a rising trend in connection with these policies such as New Public Management approach, marketization, managerialism and consumerism approach, socio-political structure of professions is rapidly changing. One of the important consequences of these changes is the transformation of the established professions, specifically the medical profession. Medical profession is the profession that has played a major role in the emergence and development of the research area of sociology of professions, that is regarded as an archetype for all other professions and that has undergone the most change in the face of states' increasing managerial control and regulatory mechanisms. In this respect, this dissertation investigates the change of the medical profession in Turkey, which has been shown as a model country in healthcare, that has arisen due to the transformation policies in health, which have been on the agenda in recent years from the perspectives of sociology of professions. The research is based on a qualitative design, which includes different data development methods. In accordance with the purpose of the research, the data set obtained from the document analysis, in-depth interviews, and focus group interviews were subjected to content analysis and changes in the medical profession have been explained by five main themes as job practice, relations, economic conditions, education and career processes, professional power and prestige perception. The obtained results have been discussed in comparison with the results of studies in other country examples in the literature, and the importance of the results has emphasized in terms of organization studies.