Task shifting in health care in resource-poor countries
Citation
McPake, B. & Mensah, K. (2008) Task shifting in health care in resource-poor countries, Lancet, vol. 372, , pp. 870 - 871,
Abstract
There is good evidence and compelling logic to support
the principle of task shifting-ie, the allocation of
tasks in health-system delivery to the least costly
health worker capable of doing that task reliably.
Luis Huicho and colleagues,1 in today's Lancet, provide
the most comprehensive study of this topic to date.
They compared results across four countries and found
that health workers with a shorter duration of training
performed at least as well and sometimes substantially
better than those with a longer duration of training in
assessing, classifying, and managing episodes of routine
childhood illness, and in counselling the children's
carers.