5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Currently the World Health Organization is establishing guidance for regulating health practitioners in the Global North as well as the Global South. It is therefore opportune for this regular session to consider the diversity of regulatory systems for health practitioners comparatively and in particular societies. The focus is on doctors, nurses and other health professionals, but also includes health support workers who form the largest and most invisible part of the healthcare workforce. The main aim of the session is to understand different regulatory regimes for the broad range of health practitioners, how they have developed and their impact on ensuring the quality of the workforce, the protection of patients and enhancement of the wider society. From a neo-Weberian perspective health professions can be seen to have effected exclusionary social closure in the market based on registers centred on minimum educational credentials and competence levels, underpinned by legal statute. However, even here there is much variation including the specific definitions of insiders and outsiders and whether they are linked to federal or state/provincial boundaries. The position of health support workers meanwhile ranges from voluntary regulation and oversight by fully-fledged health professions to no direct regulation at all other than through general legislation. There are also questions over how far any regulatory provision is implemented on the ground for both health professions and support workers. Papers are invited that explore the regulatory health practitioner landscape, including the implications for users, public safety and the broader health system.