On being truly professional

The nature of professionalism is explored as it applies to the child care worker's search for professional status. Child care workers are advised to keep in mind as they demand better working conditions that true professionalism requires much more than forming a trade association or a bargaining unit, so that the process of becoming a true profession may not be sidetracked or delayed.This paper was adapted from an address delivered at the Annual Conference of the Texas Association of Child Care Workers, San Antonio, November 1978.     

On being terminally ill

In summary, it would seem that the term terminally ill is used to convey an impression that has been formed by the carers, based on actuarial data for the particular disease from which the patient is suffering, their clinical experience dealing with others similarly affected, and a set of traditionally held beliefs. The consequences of describing someone as terminally ill are legion, affecting all aspects of care and involving the belief systems both rational and primitive of carers and patient alike. As long as we understand that it is an opinion, rather than a statement of fact, then the term terminally ill can serve an important function in communicating information in a readily understood form.     

On being comfortable with being uncomfortable: centering an Africanist vision in our gateway to global health.

African identity must be central to research on African health and development. This article focuses on three primary themes for advancing a different vision for understanding health issues in Africa. The first is the need to deconstruct conventional assumptions and theories that have been used to frame public health problems and solutions in Africa. The second is to insist that identity be central to how we frame issues of health and behavior in general and in Africa in particular. The third is the importance of the notion of "social cultural infrastructure" in defining African ways of knowing to guide public health research and intervention in Africa. Finally, the metaphor of the "African gate" is used to illuminate these themes while drawing on examples from an HIV- and AIDS-related stigma research in South Africa and its implications for addressing the critical global public-health issues of today.