| dc.description.abstract | Has the new health legislation, the Regulated Health Professions
Act, 1994. changed the social organization of health care delivery
in Ontario? My research has shown that this new legislation, which
governs twenty-four health professions, is a site of power
relations.
The seemingly mundane and ordinary practice of oral health care
delivery is examined to find evidence of change in the social
organization of health care. The relationship between two
providers of services surrounding the mouth and oral health care,
dental hygiene and dentistry exemplify the power relations and the
inherent resistance emerging as the legislation is enacted. The
evidence at this time indicates that the existing professional
monopolies may not be disrupted easily, even with new legislation.
The themes that emerged from the struggle to reframe the relations
between dentistry and dental hygiene under the new R.H.P.A. are:
discourse/language, professional dominance, technologies of
bureaucracy, gender, and power/knowledge. | |
