Survey of surgical training and experience of associate clinicians compared with medical officers to understand task-shifting in a low-income country.

ABSTRACT:

Background

A workforce crisis exists in global surgery. One solution is task-shifting, the delegation of surgical tasks to non-physician clinicians or associate clinicians (ACs). Although several studies have shown that ACs have similar postoperative outcomes compared with physicians, little is known about their surgical training. This study aimed to characterize the surgical training and experience of ACs compared with medical officers (MOs) in Tanzania.

Methods

All surgical care providers in Pwani Region, Tanzania, were surveyed. Participants reported demographic data, years of training, and procedures assisted and performed during training. They answered open-ended questions about training and post-training surgical experience. The median number of training cases for comm

SUBMITTER: Passman J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6773640 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature