Nurses, community health workers, and home carers

Gendered human resources compensating for skewed health systems

Dados Bibliográficos

ID21189275
AutoresAsha George (0000-0002-5968-1424, autor correspondente)
Ano2008
Volume3
Fascículosup1
Páginas75-89
Data de publicação2008-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoGlobal Public Health (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1744-1692 • E-ISSN: 1744-1706
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/17441690801892240
PMID19288344
OpenAlexW2104539446
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas28
Referências citadas30

This review examines the experiences of nurses, community health workers, and home carers in health systems from a gender analysis. With respect to nursing, current discussions around delegation take place over layers of historical struggle that mark the evolution of nursing as a profession. Female community health workers also struggle to be recognized as skilled workers, in addition to defending at a personal level the legitimacy of their work, as it transgresses traditional norms proscribing morality and the place of women in society, at times with violent consequences. The review concludes by exploring the characteristics of, and challenges faced by, home carers, who fail to be recognized as workers at all. A key finding is that these mainly female frontline health workers compensate for the shortcomings of health systems through individual adjustments, at times to the detriment of their own health and livelihoods. So long as these shortcomings remain as private, individual concerns of women, rather than the collective responsibility of gender, requiring public acknowledgement and resolution, health systems will continue to function in a skewed manner, serving to replicate inequalities in the health labour force and in society more broadly

Community health workers · Environmental health · Health services · Health worker · Population · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics · Global Health Workforce Issues · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology