PROFESSIONAL EMPOWERMENT AND TEACHING SOCIOLOGY TO HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONALS

The teaching of the social and behavioral sciences as disciplines with in the education and training of health care professionals is a relati vely new phenomenon in the United Kingdom. The push for their inclusio n in medical, nursing, midwifery and radiography curricula is a conseq uence of major changes in the system and service of health care in Bri tain, which lent a greater urgency to the professionalization of these occupations. This, in turn, called for professional and educational v alidating bodies to fundamentally reorganize courses, to raise their a cademic level, and to encourage widespread research into learning styl es, continuing professional development, and alternative educational d elivery modes such as open and distance learning. In teaching sociolog y across a range of newly developed health care courses we have had to consider the dynamics of United Kingdom health care education that pr ompted their development. This paper is based on our experiences in de signing, implementing, and evaluating such courses.