Abstract

Within their practice, nurses in the Southwest Region of Cameroon apply a Western approach to professional nursing which is evident at the very commencement of their nursing career, with their basic nursing education being guided by a curriculum within which a Western model of nursing and allopathic medical treatment are central. Conversely, when exploring the actions these qualified nurses take when a family member (their child, for example) becomes sick and requires medical intervention, many describe using traditional remedies and visiting traditional healers rather than applying the Western approach of their professional practice. Such inconsistency in their actions could be considered as illogical or even as a paradox. What makes the situation in the Southwest Region of Cameroon, similarly to much of sub-Saharan Africa, particularly fascinating is how a coherent traditional world view has been maintained and translated into the everyday aspects of a much more modern, technological society.