Not Belonging to an Association
It is recognized that professional associations (PAs) should be for the purpose of providing job opportunities and support to those who belong to them. Even with these benefits, about one in three Australian chiropractors chooses not to belong.
This study has two objectives: 1) to investigate the views of non-member chiropractors on PA in general; 2) to try to understand the motivations of non-member Australian chiropractors for not belonging to PA; and 3) to examine the impact of PA on the perceptions of non-member chiropractors.
This qualitative descriptive study will
Utilising in-depth semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions for subject analysis, and conducted from January to April 2020, nine participants were interviewed before any new subjects were identified.
Participants had to be registered chiropractors who had not been members of the PA for at least three years, and recruitment was done through Facebook advertising and snowball sampling.The interviews were transcribed and imported into NVivo qualitative analysis software to identify key concepts surrounding non-members of chiropractic PAs.
Results.
Five themes were identified from the content.
1) Discolored images suggest that the profession is in a poor position in the eyes of the general public and other health professionals.
2) Stated that it is not worth the money and that the annual membership fee is not considered value for money.
3) Going it alone/what's in it for me? Indicated no direct benefit or anything that would be considered essential to the practice.
4) Two opposing factions reflecting that they do not want to be seen as part of the internal conflict between conservative practitioners and evidence-based practitioners.
5) Lack of visibility, described as the absence of a visible presence or strong communication that clearly demonstrates the benefits of membership.
In conclusion, he stated that for those who do not become members, professional associations do not offer "benefits" such as jobs and other services that may be available to them, but they do not see any tangible value.
Innes, S.I., Cope, V. & Young, K.J. Factors influencing Australian chiropractors who choose not to join national professional associations: a qualitative study. Chiropr Man Therap 28, 58 (2020). Available at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12998-020-00351-4
Conclusion
In this study, nine experienced chiropractors were asked to give their reasons for not joining a professional association in a questionnaire. As mentioned in the conclusion, it seems that there is no point in joining an association, and if these problems are solved, the association may be able to increase its membership.
In the first place, the formation of a professional community has a different character from that of a general community, but it also provides an opportunity to create a sense of belonging and respect for the profession. However, in this study, there was an opinion that chiropractors do not feel the meaning of belonging to a community where their position is unclear and where they seem to be inferior to other professionals.
In fact, judo therapists also have associations, but I have never joined one because I honestly don't feel there is any advantage to joining one. I would like to ask them why they joined.I would like to ask those who have joined why they did so. There may be political, factional, or group motives involved, but many of the "XX" associations do charitable activities as they see fit, making it look like they are making a contribution, but in reality, they are often useless.
You may have heard that doctors have a medical association, but did you know that judo therapists have a judo therapist association?
