A praxis of policy : negotiating the ethics of a duty to care among healthcare Workers in Gauteng, South Africa

Abstract

This dissertation explores healthcare workers’ praxis of biomedical ethics in a healthcare system that has been ravaged by structural challenges evidenced by poor management, shortages of biomedical supplies, staff, and equipment. By following the narratives of healthcare professionals, I examine the ways in which they attempt to fulfill their duty to care for patients by working around and through situations. I make visible the tools, techniques, practices, and processes they engage in to negotiate and achieve patient care. I argue that although certain actions of healthcare professionals may appear unethical from the bioethical fundamentalist’s viewpoint, my evidence suggests that healthcare workers mostly perceive such situations less as a deviation from clinical ethics but as praxis of it.