Self-regulation in a small professional group is an important step toward professionalization: the Chiropractic Association in Singapore

OBJECTIVE: The chiropractic profession is immersed in the process of professionalization with particular consideration of self-regulation as an avenue toward state recognition in Singapore. The purpose of this article is to discuss the emergence of chiropractic as a profession in Singapore and the Chiropractic Association (Singapore). DISCUSSION: The concept of professionalization is varied and context based, and the institutionalization of formal knowledge plays an important role in the socialization of how a profession forms a unifying identity. The difference in institutional socialization of the professions plays a role in the way a profession is perceived in the hierarchy of societal power. Continuing professional development is an essential part of professionalism and is best done within the realm of self-regulation and autonomous control of the profession itself. CONCLUSION: The social process of professionalization can be a process of internal conflict and external battles almost from the profession's inception with university training only entering late in its development, rather than being a linear development. A sequential progress ensued as with other professions, with the seeking of legal protection and a code of ethics as the final areas reached toward becoming an acknowledged member of the health care system.