African Perspectives on Ethics for Healthcare Professionals

270 Pages·2018·3.005 MB·English

by  Nico Nortjé, Jo-Celene De Jongh, Willem A. Hoffmann

Advancing Global Bioethics 13
Nico Nortjé · Willem A. Hoff mann
Jo-Celene De Jongh Editors
African
Perspectives
on Ethics for
Healthcare
Professionals
Advancing Global Bioethics
Volume 13
Series editors
Henk A.M.J. ten Have
Duquesne University
Pittsburgh, USA
Bert Gordijn
Dublin City University, Ethics Inst
Rm C147, Henry Grattan Building
Dublin, Ireland
The book series Global Bioethics provides a forum for normative analysis of a vast
range of important new issues in bioethics from a truly global perspective and with
a cross-cultural approach. The issues covered by the series include among other
things sponsorship of research and education, scientific misconduct and research
integrity, exploitation of research participants in resource-poor settings, brain drain
and migration of healthcare workers, organ trafficking and transplant tourism,
indigenous medicine, biodiversity, commodification of human tissue, benefit sharing,
bio-industry and food, malnutrition and hunger, human rights, and climate change.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10420
Nico Nortjé • Willem A. Hoffmann
Jo-Celene De Jongh
Editors
African Perspectives
on Ethics for Healthcare
Professionals
Editors
Nico Nortjé Willem A. Hoffmann
University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Tshwane University of Technology
Center Pretoria, South Africa
Houston, TX, USA
The University of the Free State
Bloemfontein, South Africa
Jo-Celene De Jongh
University of the Western Cape
Bellville, South Africa
ISSN 2212-652X ISSN 2212-6538 (electronic)
Advancing Global Bioethics
ISBN 978-3-319-93229-3 ISBN 978-3-319-93230-9 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93230-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956148
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Foreword
The functioning of society at large is based on the notion of attaining what is good
and has consequently developed various traditions, theories and declarations to
guide this aspiration. The African continent is characterised by a multitude of differ-
ent cultures, each with its unique and different perspectives and histories. During
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many African countries were colonised by
predominantly European empires who enforced their own value system, often in an
attempt to suppress or even negate the local traditional value systems. However, the
many decades of colonisation were followed in the late 1990s with a general move-
ment that coined the African Renaissance. This movement attempts to overturn and
change the widespread negative effects of colonisation by instilling a new focus,
renewal and appreciation of all African traditional customs, beliefs and values in
every conceivable sector of society. A very significant contribution of the African
Renaissance movement to the global ethics discourse is African people’s unique
perspectives on personhood and “being a good person”.
The values and perspectives connected to traditional healthcare in Africa often
link illness to an understanding of cosmology where the connectedness of the indi-
vidual to his/her family (living and dead), clan and society is as important to under-
standing illness and to healing as the ultimate treatment of the specific illness.
Africans at large view healing as a holistic process with porous boundaries where
external and internal realities are not sharply separated. This view can potentially
result in significant tension in contexts where it comes in contact with predomi-
nantly Western views of medicine. This tension may even be exacerbated by the
curricula that many healthcare training programmes in African higher education
institutions follow, especially when the curricula have not yet critically engaged
with and/or integrated African values with the often dominant Western value system
and principles. Although one should not negate the valuable contributions that the
science of medicine and healthcare has brought to the African continent, the critical
v
vi Foreword
question is how African values, principles and knowledge can be effectively dis-
seminated, integrated and practiced in African healthcare contexts that take care of
persons who are often more vulnerable than a similar person in a developed world
context.
It is with a great appreciation for the uniqueness of the people of this wonderful
continent, as well as for the colourful stories and anecdotes of healthcare providers,
that this volume was conceptualised. It is our belief and hope as editors and authors
of the various chapters that this volume provides a platform for African healthcare
providers to contribute to the movement of global bioethics and to inform the world
of the exceptional ways that ethics is practiced on our continent.
Leading scholars from various healthcare disciplines, which are normally under-
represented in ethics literature, have combined their years of teaching and practical
experience to share their insights into ethical issues faced by practitioners within
their respective healthcare disciplines. All the authors are sons and daughters of
Africa and have worked in healthcare for several years. Their vast experience brings
with it an innate understanding of the uniqueness of the African continent and also
the challenges posed in the drive to establish the discipline of ethics across the
continent.
The respective chapters in this volume have been arranged in a way that provides
the reader an understanding of the specific ethical issues faced by healthcare profes-
sionals in a specific discipline on the African continent, followed by another chapter
focussing on a more in-depth study of ethical issues by South Africa healthcare
professionals in the same discipline. However, it must be noted that this chapter
division does not in any way imply, suggest or indicate that South African issues are
unique or superior to that of the rest of Africa. Rather, the fact that some chapters
focus on South African (regional) issues, while others on more continental issues
should be viewed against the aspiration to illustrate the diverse nature of the ethical
debate on the African continent, which we hope will ultimately contribute to the
richness and diversity of the discussion. The aim of this volume is to establish the
importance of Africa as a continent rich in ethical narratives, while recognising that
many issues faced by healthcare practitioners in Africa are unique to the continent.
All the authors have strived to include indigenous knowledge derived and developed
from their experiences and observations of current and past generations in order to
inform ethical choices in future situations. As such, this volume is intended to serve
as an introductory overview of professional ethics in the context of healthcare provi-
sion in Africa, as well as a handbook for educational purposes.
All the chapters were written by experienced academia and underwent three
rounds of blind peer review. All the reviewers’ comments and suggestions raised in
the first round were duly integrated into the chapters by the respective authors and
then again reviewed by the same reviewers in the second round. A third round of
review by a panel of external expert reviewers took place when the manuscript was
formally submitted to the publishing house. Again, all the review panel’s comments
Foreword vii
and suggestions raised were duly integrated into the chapters by the respective
authors. We are therefore confident that the scholarly work presented here will
inform the debate on ethics in Africa in a positive and constructive manner.
It is our hope that ethics teaching and ethics education will be enriched through
this volume.
University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center Nico Nortjé
Houston, TX, USA
The University of the Free State
Bloemfontein, South Africa
Tshwane University of Technology Braam Hoffmann
Pretoria, South Africa
Department of Occupational Therapy Jo-Celene De Jongh
University of the Western Cape
Bellville, South Africa
Contents
1 Bioethics and Its Development on the African Continent . . . . . . . . . . 1
Nico Nortjé, Joseph Mfutso-Bengo, and Willem A. Hoffmann
2 Development of Bioethics and Professionalism
in the Healthcare Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Nico Nortjé, Willem A. Hoffmann, and Jo-Celene De Jongh
3 Ubuntu-Botho Approach to Ethics: An Invitation to Dialogue . . . . . . 25
Nhlanhla Mkhize
4 Ethics in Occupational Therapy – An African Perspective . . . . . . . . . 49
Thuli Godfrey Mthembu
5 Reflecting on Ethics in Occupational Therapy
Within Community Development Practice in South Africa . . . . . . . . 61
Jo-Celene De Jongh, Lucia Hess-April, and Nikki Vermeulen
6 Ethics in Nutrition – An African Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Edelweiss Wentzel-Viljoen, Amos Laar, and Maryse Umugwaneza
7 Ethics for the Dietetic Profession – A South African Perspective . . . . 91
Ernie Kunneke, Rina Swart, and Nico Nortjé
8 The Role of Social Work in the Provision
of Healthcare in Africa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Mavis Dako-Gyeke, Doris A. Boateng, and Abigail A. Mills
9 Ethics and Social Work – A South African Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Marcel P. Londt
10 Ethics in Physiotherapy Practice – An African Perspective . . . . . . . . 133
Ajediran I. Bello and Babatunde O. A. Adegoke
ix
x Contents
11 The Ethics of Care as Applied to Physiotherapy
Training and Practice – A South African Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Theresa Burgess and Jennifer Jelsma
12 Ethics in Nursing – An African Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Miriam Carole Atieno Wagoro and Sinegugu Evidence Duma
13 Ethics in Nursing – A South African Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Yolanda Havenga, Annie Temane, Tendani Ramukumba,
and Anna Nolte
14 Ethics for Healthcare Professionals in Radiography – An African
Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Chandra R. Makanjee, Muchui J. Thambura,
and Penelope Engel-Hills
15 Ethics in Diagnostic Radiography in South Africa:
A Complex Temporary Encounter Mediated
Through Text and Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
Chandra R. Makanjee and Penelope Engel-Hills
16 Public Health Ethics and Rights in Healthcare Programmes . . . . . . . 215
Joseph Mfutso-Bengo, Elizabeth Bukusi, and Eva Mfutso-Bengo
17 Ethics and Public Health – A South African Perspective . . . . . . . . . . 235
Suraya Mohamed
18 Curriculum Guidelines for Teaching Healthcare Ethics
at Undergraduate Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Willem A. Hoffmann and Nico Nortjé