Professionalization of an allied health occupation: the physician's assistant.
This article describes the process that an allied health occupation undergoes to become professionalized. The physician's assistant, one of the more recent health occupations to emerge, is used to exemplify the professionalization process. The historical background and definition of traditional professionalism are presented. The evolution of the new professionalism that is characteristic of current allied health occupations is also discussed. The process used in this article to determine the professionalization of physician's assistants also could be used to determine how other allied health occupations are being, or have become, professionalized.
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