A disease beyond reach
Nurse perspectives on the past and present of tuberculosis control in South Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2186884 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Justin Dixon (0000-0002-7706-7305, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, corresponding author), Michèle Tameris (0000-0002-7983-7203, University of Cape Town) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 41 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 257-269 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-02 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Anthropology Southern Africa (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2332-3264 • E-ISSN: 2332-3256 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/23323256.2018.1526096 |
| OpenAlex | W2904316001 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 21 |
Although access to healthcare has improved since South Africa’s democratic transition, neoliberal reforms have had detrimental effects on clinic-community and nurse-patient relationships, undermining efforts to control tuberculosis (TB). This article focuses upon the work of nurses in three public health clinics in the Western Cape, South Africa. We explore how they experienced, made sense of and grappled with the challenges of TB control, especially patients “defaulting” on medication. Paying particular attention to confrontations between nurses and patients, we build upon previous qualitative studies that have contested popular constructions of nurses as “rude” and “uncaring.” We argue that patient blaming and scolding need to be understood in light of nurses having to tread a fine line between compassion and assertiveness, individual and public good against the backdrop of a dissonance between the theory and reality of TB control. Nurses’ confrontational approaches are responses to the messy reality of TB control on the ground, solutions to which require attention to the socioeconomic and historical context of nursing and primary healthcare. In the absence of such attention, animosities between clinics and communities could continue being cyclically reproduced
Control (management · Disease · Economics · Geography · Management · Pathology · Political science · Sociology · Tuberculosis · Tuberculosis control · HIV/AIDS Impact and Responses · Interprofessional Education and Collaboration · Medicine · Nursing · Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology
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Discourses and practices in institutionalised nursing in South Africa
Pathologies of Power
Nihilism and pragmatism in tuberculosis control
Clinics, Communities, and Cost Recovery
Audit Cultures
Why do nurses abuse patients? Reflections from South African obstetric services
Trust and health worker performance
The Consumption of the Poor
Paperwork and the contradictions of accountability in a South African hospital
"Containing" tuberculosis, perpetuating stigma
Extreme condition, extreme measures? Compliance, drug resistance, and the control of tuberculosis
| Citations per year | 0.4 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2021 - 2025 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |