Public HealthNon-physician clinicians in 47 sub-Saharan African countries
Introduction
Many nations have a history of health-care provision by staff who are not trained as physicians but who are capable of many of the diagnostic and clinical functions of medical doctors. In the 19th century, the French deployed officiers de santé (health officers)1 for rural medical services; in the 20th century Russian feldshers and Chinese barefoot doctors were active.2, 3 These types of health workers are now known as health officers, clinical officers, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, or nurse clinicians. We will describe them as non-physician clinicians (NPCs). Non-physician clinicians deliver health services in both developed4, 5 and developing countries.6 For example, more than 300 000 non-physician clinicians practise alongside physicians in the USA.7
NPCs were present in sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial era; the British in particular trained health workers known as apothecaries, who dispensed medicines and often assumed additional clinical duties (Kadama P; Ministry of Health, Uganda, and WHO Health Policy and Strategic Planning; personal communication). In Uganda, an African Native Medical Corps was formed in 1918, with training programmes at the government hospital in Mulago.8 In Kenya, from the 1920s, health workers known as dressers and dispensers were trained to provide basic surgical and medical care, respectively.9 Agents sanitaire were trained in the Congo and elsewhere in French-speaking colonial Africa.10
The rationale for development of NPC programmes before and after independence was the need for personnel to deliver medical services in poorly served regions.11 But despite the practical benefits of educating Africans for increasingly senior clinical duties, some physicians were concerned that training of such personnel would result in professional dilution.9 This tension was evident in the titles used to designate African NPCs between the 1920s and 1960s, which included subassistant surgeon, subdispensary attendant, senior native medical assistant, senior African medical assistant, medical assistant, medical auxiliary, and clinical officer.9
Ethiopia initiated education of health officers at the University of Gonder in 1954.12 In countries such as Mozambique the exodus of physicians during war prompted initiation of NPC cadres.13 After independence in Ghana, a commitment to primary health care delivery led to the establishment of the Rural Health Service, which trained health-centre superintendents, who were later known as medical assistants.6 Much of rural health care in northern Ghana is now provided by these medical assistants.14
Robust information on national health workforces is not available in many countries. Reasons for this include different data collection agencies for trainees and workers; employment by both governments and non-governmental organisations; the difficulty of tracking retirements, deaths, and emigration; and the cost of maintaining accurate workforce data. To obtain primary data about NPCs, we used a key informant tree, whereby we surveyed individuals in all 47 countries, including officials in ministries of health and education, academicians, health programme directors, local government officials, and members of non-governmental organisations and faith-based organisations. NPC registries were also available in seven countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia).
We investigated the background, role, and status of NPCs in the 47 countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe).
Section snippets
Non-physician clinicians
NPCs cannot be easily delineated from other health workers with a simple legal or practical test, since many categories of health workers have taken on diagnostic and treatment functions that were traditionally the domain of physicians. We defined NPCs as health workers with training beyond the secondary school level, who have fewer clinical skills than physicians but more than basic nurses. Our definition of NPCs included workers who were trained to deliver a range of personal clinical health
Discussion
NPCs were working in 25 of the 47 countries we surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa. All 25 of these countries with NPCs ranked among the 36 African countries that are recognised by WHO to have a critical shortage of health workers.39 Nine countries had the same or greater numbers of NPCs as physicians, suggesting that they relied heavily on NPCs' contributions to health systems. Many countries were training increasing numbers of these workers.
The growing HIV/AIDS epidemic and the health targets
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