Cargando…

Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"

Health workforce shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, particularly of physicians, leading the training and deployment of Non-physician clinicians (NPCs). The paper by Eyal et al provides interesting and legitimate viewpoints on evolving role of physicians in context of decisive inc...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Sidat, Mohsin M.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Kerman University of Medical Sciences 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5144880/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28005553
http://dx.doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2016.80
_version_ 1782473198070136832
author Sidat, Mohsin M.
author_facet Sidat, Mohsin M.
author_sort Sidat, Mohsin M.
collection PubMed
description Health workforce shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, particularly of physicians, leading the training and deployment of Non-physician clinicians (NPCs). The paper by Eyal et al provides interesting and legitimate viewpoints on evolving role of physicians in context of decisive increase of NPCss in Sub-Saharan Africa. Certainly, in short or mid-term, NPCs will continue to be a proxy solution and a valuable alternative to overcome physicians’ shortages in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, NPCs have an important role at primary healthcare (PHC) level. Physicians at PHC level can certainly have all different roles that were suggested by Eyal et al, including those not directly related to healthcare provision. However, at secondary and higher levels of healthcare, physicians would assume other roles that are mainly related to patient clinical care. Thus, attempting to generalize the role of physicians without taking into account the context where they will work would be not entirely appropriate. It is true that often physicians start the professional carriers at PHC level and progress to other levels of healthcare particularly after clinical post-graduation training. Nevertheless, the training programs offered by medical institutions in sub-Saharan Africa need to be periodically reviewed and take into account professional and occupational roles physicians would take in context of evolving health systems in sub-Saharan Africa.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-5144880
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2016
publisher Kerman University of Medical Sciences
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-51448802016-12-14 Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians" Sidat, Mohsin M. Int J Health Policy Manag Commentary Health workforce shortages in Sub-Saharan Africa are widely recognized, particularly of physicians, leading the training and deployment of Non-physician clinicians (NPCs). The paper by Eyal et al provides interesting and legitimate viewpoints on evolving role of physicians in context of decisive increase of NPCss in Sub-Saharan Africa. Certainly, in short or mid-term, NPCs will continue to be a proxy solution and a valuable alternative to overcome physicians’ shortages in sub-Saharan Africa. Indeed, NPCs have an important role at primary healthcare (PHC) level. Physicians at PHC level can certainly have all different roles that were suggested by Eyal et al, including those not directly related to healthcare provision. However, at secondary and higher levels of healthcare, physicians would assume other roles that are mainly related to patient clinical care. Thus, attempting to generalize the role of physicians without taking into account the context where they will work would be not entirely appropriate. It is true that often physicians start the professional carriers at PHC level and progress to other levels of healthcare particularly after clinical post-graduation training. Nevertheless, the training programs offered by medical institutions in sub-Saharan Africa need to be periodically reviewed and take into account professional and occupational roles physicians would take in context of evolving health systems in sub-Saharan Africa. Kerman University of Medical Sciences 2016-07-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5144880/ /pubmed/28005553 http://dx.doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2016.80 Text en © 2016 The Author(s); Published by Kerman University of Medical Sciences This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Commentary
Sidat, Mohsin M.
Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"
title Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"
title_full Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"
title_fullStr Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"
title_full_unstemmed Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"
title_short Is the Role of Physicians Really Evolving Due to Non-physician Clinicians Predominance in Staff Makeup in Sub-Saharan African Health Systems?: Comment on "Non-physician Clinicians in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Evolving Role of Physicians"
title_sort is the role of physicians really evolving due to non-physician clinicians predominance in staff makeup in sub-saharan african health systems?: comment on "non-physician clinicians in sub-saharan africa and the evolving role of physicians"
topic Commentary
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5144880/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28005553
http://dx.doi.org/10.15171/ijhpm.2016.80
work_keys_str_mv AT sidatmohsinm istheroleofphysiciansreallyevolvingduetononphysicianclinicianspredominanceinstaffmakeupinsubsaharanafricanhealthsystemscommentonnonphysiciancliniciansinsubsaharanafricaandtheevolvingroleofphysicians