Our good is the public good-reframing the communication of professional groups : anatomy of the resident doctors’ protests in Poland

This article analyses the protests of resident doctors in Poland, with a particular focus on their hunger protest in October 2017. We use a theoretical framework of three types of groups - epistemic communities, communities of practice and interest groups - to show their strategies used for gaining influence upon healthcare. We show the dynamics of the protest, with a shift from self-centred to public-oriented demands. We present how a professional group managed to shape the public discourse on healthcare, introducing their key demands, which became not only media catchphrases, but also the axis of the media discourse on any future healthcare reforms. We also reconstruct how the resident doctors defined and identified themselves as an epistemic community, with an elaborate and well-planned strategy employed to gain public visibility, media attention and public support.