Queen of the Professions

Charles E. McClelland, PhD, is a social historian with a particular focus on the history of the professions. He is professor emeritus of History at the University of New Mexico and an associate faculty member of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch. In addition to cofounding the Albuquerque International Association, he serves as its vice president.

• Acknowledgments and PrefaceIntroduction: What Makes a Profession a Profession?Part I: From Healing Art to Scientific Profession: Medicine 500 B.C.E. to 1850 C.E.1: Swearing by Apollo2: The Levant: Saving Grace of the Middle Ages3: Physicians, Barbers and “Old Wives”4: Hospitals or Hospices?5: Gifts from the Sister SciencesPart II:The Making of a Doctor: The Evolution of Medical Education6: Acolytes and Apprentices7: Starting with Salerno: Europe’s First Medical Schools8: From Sacrilege to Science: Dissection and Observation9: Three Paths Leading to Modern Medical Education10: Money Talks: Abraham Flexner’s Reforms11: High Tech, Low Touch?Part III: Changing Concepts of Medical Ethics: When Values Collide12: A Sacred Trust: Roots of MedicalEthics 13: First, Do No Harm: The Introduction of Humanistic Values14: The Physician as Gentle-man15: Balancing Individual and Public Benefit: Experimental Abuses16: Gods No More: The Rise of Patients’ Rights17: Collisions of CulturesPart IV: The Future of Medicine as a Profession: From Hippocrates to Dr. House18: Cures, at Last!19: The Conundrum of Insurance: Raising Income, Threatening Autonomy20: Expanding Access to the Physician’s Role21: What It All MeansBibliographyIndex

Medicine as a profession has a protracted ancestry with origins located deep in antiquity. Tracing the ancestry of the profession to inform the present is the motivation behind this work. In this context, social historian McClelland provides a broad historical overview of the rise of professional medicine within the context of social theory. He begins the four-part work with a discussion of the origins of the profession from the time of the early Greeks through 1850. In later sections, he focuses on the evolution of medical education, ethics, and the future of the profession. One of the more interesting observations the author makes is that with the rise of so many mid-level medical, nursing, and health professionals, the current environment appears similar to the environment prior to the release of the Flexner Report in the early 20th century. How this came about and the implications for the profession's future are well addressed. Written in an academic style, the book is supported by ten pages of chapter notes and a four-page bibliography. Valuable for all academic audiences and an important resource for professionals in the health field, especially those in medicine. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above.