Beyond Hybridity in Organized Professionalism: A Case Study of Medical Curriculum Change

Abstract

Hybridity denotes the combination of professional and managerial discourses within roles and individuals. Evolving roles are both symptoms and effects of health system reform, intended to improve care coordination across occupational, disciplinary and organizational boundaries. A central tenet of hybridity is a tension between competing world views; however, the question is increasingly posed as to whether such tensions are not experienced in such a conflicted manner. Moralee and Bailey examine this through a case study of professions in the English National Health Service (NHS), demonstrating the work they undertake in making sense of, internalizing and resolving their “hybridized” conflicts. In considering the conceptual and practical ramifications of being “beyond” hybridity, Moralee and Bailey explore what this might mean for our conventional understanding of power, jurisdiction, resistance and enrolment in professional organizations, which are central to questions of care coordination.