The (im)possibilities of clinical democracy

In this article, we argue that homogenising discussions of medical dominance on the meta-level of professions do not fully capture the complexity that characterises current clinical care in multidisciplinary health care teams. We illustrate this through an empirical study of a multidisciplinary team attempting to enact their work in a clinically democratic way. The challenges that arose in putting this into practice highlight the depth and complexity of enculturated medical dominance in Australian hospital practice. Our study shows that effective facilitation of clinician reflexivity has the potential to challenge and change deeply embedded structures and behaviours.