Research on the Change of the Roles and Functions of Professions in modern society

1993 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 04610107
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: 社会学(含社会福祉関係)
• Research Institution: Wakayama University
• Principal Investigator: YONEDA Yoritsugi Wakayama University, The Faculty of Education, Associate Professor, 教育学部, 助教授 (60144101)
• Project Period (FY): 1992 – 1993
• Keywords: Profession / Specialization / Public Health Nurse

Research Abstract

In general, our research program is aimed at clarifying what kind of changes occure in the roles and functions of professions in modern society. It also is a challenge to the classical theory of professions by rethinking the idealized role-image of a profession.
Specifically, our research focused on the roles and functions of the public health nurse. Our conclusions were following :
1.Public health nursing is characterized by casework which focuses on the "primary nature" of its practices, which is the opposite of ordinary specialization in the professional services. This "primary nature" is assumed as the core-charactar of the public health nurse's roles and functions.
2.The independence and emphasis on general care which charactarize this "primary nature" diminish as public health nurses become contrained by the bureaucratic practices of public health projects.
Public health nurses basically respond to people's desire to impruve their qulity of life and interpret "primary nature" in terms of people's needs.
4.Althouth the concept of "primary nature" in the practice of public health nursing seems undifferentiated and immature in terms of a social and histrical context which emphasizes specialization. it is worth evaluating as an alternative role-image-for professions which suffer from the so-called "over-apecialization-syndrome".