Emerging allied health professions

Abstract

This chapter draws on the examples of the professionalisation of operating department practitioners (ODPs), pedorthists and developmental educators (DEs) to examine the pathway to professionalism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. These examples illustrate potential pathways that can be adopted for successful professionalisation by other occupational groups. Newly emerging allied health professions at the end of the 20th century and start of the 21st century have been able to access a far more straightforward pathway to achieve their professional project. Newly emerging occupations that meet a series of minimum professional standards face limited opposition from the state and minimal, if any, intervention from the medical profession. Their primary challenge is achieving professional closure and convincing large (mostly state) funding bodies to recognise and purchase their services, effectively achieving professional closure.