Being a health professional in the 21st century: some notes

Abstract

From 1970’s theorists in History have noted the arrival of a new era known as Postmodernity, late-Modernity or reflexive Modernity. This new era, our current time, comes marked by the end of the ‘great stories’ that made western world comprehensible since ancient times, and cracking old certainties and putting the Subject in terms of social atomization and an accused self-responsibility. These ideological and social changes have brought profound consequences in many spheres (fields, scopes) in western human life, such as work, social (personal) relationships or politics, from where medicine and western practices don’t (seem to) escape. On this basis, this article tries to analyze, firstly, the meanings and difficulties of this new era; from there, and secondly, it tries to understand the consequences that these changes and variations are assuming for professionals in the fields of medicine and health.

Keywords

• Cambio de época
• Medicina y praxis médica occidental
• Revisión epistemológica
• Cientificidad simple y reflexiva
• Nuevo paradigma