Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa
Marais, Mia. 2025. Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132649
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
2025
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613882509426688 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author | Marais, Mia |
| author2 | Palk, Andrea |
| author_browse | Marais, Mia Palk, Andrea |
| author_facet | Palk, Andrea Marais, Mia |
| author_sort | Marais, Mia |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | Stellenbosch University |
| description | Marais, Mia. 2025. Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132649 |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132649 |
| institution | Stellenbosch University (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:43:12.690Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| publishDateRange | 2025 |
| publishDateSort | 2025 |
| publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| publisherStr | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | SUNScholar — Stellenbosch University Repository |
| spelling | oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/132649 Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa Marais, Mia Palk, Andrea Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Philosophy. Applied Ethics. Supererogation Medical personnel -- Attitudes -- South Africa Medical ethics -- South Africa Emergency medicine -- South Africa UCTD Marais, Mia. 2025. Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132649 Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2025. ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Supererogatory actions are those can be described as going above and beyond duty. Such actions fall within the moral class which encapsulates deeds which are “good to do but not bad not to do”; they are not obligatory, not neutral or merely permissible, and not prohibited. Emergency medicine invokes the image of exhausted blood-stained doctors going to heroic lengths to save patients experiencing the most traumatic day of their lives. Whilst this may be a dramatization of reality, the truth is not necessarily as far removed as one would assume. South African emergency services suffer from a paucity of funds, despite being the first port of call and working on the frontline when global disasters, wars or pandemics occur. Moreover, austerity measures are set to become more stringent, resulting in fewer resources and fewer emergency healthcare practitioners caring for more patients, with increasing expectations of the services to be delivered. The nature and time commitment of the work also has the potential to cause harm to the healthcare practitioner in many spheres of life - their own health and wellbeing, their psychological state, and their social relationships and interaction with the wider community. Despite these challenges, doctors working in emergency care often take a pragmatic approach to the problems arising with patients, and in the workplace, tending to have an attitude of ‘just getting on with the task at hand’ in order to best help the patient in the fastest possible manner. This leaves little time for the emergency clinician to contemplate questions such as when the duty to care is outweighed by the harms to self. This thesis contends that the current system of emergency care delivery is functional largely due to doctors going beyond the call of duty on a daily basis; that supererogation has become a prerequisite and paradoxically obligatory to uphold a satisfactory level of care for patients. The thesis sets out to show that this is the case by outlining the current landscape of emergency healthcare in South Africa, by delineating core concepts surrounding supererogation including duty and harm, then by highlighting salient arguments in support of and to contradict the proposed claim, whilst acknowledging the challenging notion that there may not be a feasible alternative option. AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar. Masters 2025-06-12T09:22:10Z 2025-06-12T09:22:10Z 2025-03 Thesis https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132649 Stellenbosch University 78 pages application/pdf Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| spellingShingle | Supererogation Medical personnel -- Attitudes -- South Africa Medical ethics -- South Africa Emergency medicine -- South Africa UCTD Marais, Mia Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa |
| title | Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa |
| title_full | Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa |
| title_short | Supererogation: the backbone of emergency care in South Africa |
| title_sort | supererogation the backbone of emergency care in south africa |
| topic | Supererogation Medical personnel -- Attitudes -- South Africa Medical ethics -- South Africa Emergency medicine -- South Africa UCTD |
| url | https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/132649 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT maraismia supererogationthebackboneofemergencycareinsouthafrica |