Dr Mignon Duffy joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article: “Why Improving Low-Wage Health Care Jobs Is Critical for Health Equity.”

Historical perspective on how some sites and means of professional caregiving became high or low status helps us understand trends in poor care continuity in US health care.

Commitment to health equity demands higher pay, improved benefits, and more workplace protections for all health workers.

Cultural failure to recognize tacit knowledge explains why credential-based knowledge has higher status and prioritizes clinicians who do not care on an hour-to-hour basis for most of our country’s elders.

Authentic partnerships with people with dementia motivate full social participation and resist fatalism around experiences of illness.

As a matter of medical ethics, physicians must address the health care needs of and be advocates for family caregivers of their patients with dementia.