Research and the Postwar Shift in the Identity of Veterans Health Administration Medical Professionals, an Exploration

• In Event: 1184 - Section on Organizations, Occupations, and Work Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 04. Professions

Abstract

Following World War II there was a shift in identity of many Veterans Health Administration (VHA) medical professionals from being state employees with a specific set of duties to that of independent professionals with extensive expertise. Three factors facilitated this shift in identity, many VHA professionals: 1) increased prioritization of professional-dominated organizations’ goals; 2) increased research efforts; and, 3) incorporation into their identities the principle that they should not only be practitioners but also researchers, i.e., the inseparability principle. Research contributed to the formation of the new professional identity by facilitating professionals’ and others belief that professionals had extensive and growing expertise and allowed them to justify their autonomy based on that expertise. Data is presented showing the dramatic postwar increase in VHA professionals research activities and both non-VHA and VHA professionals incorporation of the inseparability principle into their identity. Also shown is how in comparison to nurses, and more so physicians and psychologists, social workers did not develop a scientific basis for their profession or incorporate the inseparability principle into their identity due to their limited research efforts, the limited role of social work research in practice, and that much social work research does not focus on the development of a “social work theory” or profession-specific techniques and practices. While there is not direct data demonstrating the new identity’s increased prevalence among VHA medical professionals, indirect data strongly suggests that it had an ever-increased presence among them (although there was likely variation across professions).

Author

• Greg Greenberg, Veterans Health Administration