TY - JOUR
T1 - A Heart for the Care
T2 - Affect, Kin, and Care Work in a Zambian Hospital
AU - Bunkley, Emma Nelson
AU - Asante, Comfort
AU - Burack, Sarah
AU - Kaufman, Lindsey
AU - Miti, Sam
AU - Hunleth, Jean
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the American Anthropological Association.
PY - 2024/3
Y1 - 2024/3
N2 - At the only standalone pediatric hospital in Zambia, patient wellbeing often rests in the hands of bedsiders. Bedsiders are caregivers, often family, who sit at the patient's bedside, feeding, cleaning them, and running medical errands. Bedsiders are critical human infrastructure for the hospital and its staff. In our research, we heard repeatedly that bedsiders must have a “heart” for caregiving, taking on unremunerated and exhausting informal labor. We draw on Wendland's “heart for the work,” a phrase commonly used among healthcare workers in Malawi and Zambia describing the medical profession, to explore what this metaphor reveals about care.
AB - At the only standalone pediatric hospital in Zambia, patient wellbeing often rests in the hands of bedsiders. Bedsiders are caregivers, often family, who sit at the patient's bedside, feeding, cleaning them, and running medical errands. Bedsiders are critical human infrastructure for the hospital and its staff. In our research, we heard repeatedly that bedsiders must have a “heart” for caregiving, taking on unremunerated and exhausting informal labor. We draw on Wendland's “heart for the work,” a phrase commonly used among healthcare workers in Malawi and Zambia describing the medical profession, to explore what this metaphor reveals about care.
KW - Zambia
KW - bedsider
KW - caregiving
KW - heart
KW - hospital ethnography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85179913474&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/maq.12837
DO - 10.1111/maq.12837
M3 - Article
C2 - 38112051
AN - SCOPUS:85179913474
SN - 0745-5194
VL - 38
SP - 54
EP - 66
JO - Medical Anthropology Quarterly
JF - Medical Anthropology Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -