Task Shifting 101
What is task-shifting? How does it work And why its an essential part of building a functional healthcare system in Nigeria.

Given Nigeria’s current training models and health delivery practices, it would take that country 300 years to train the same number of doctors per capita as currently exists in developed countries-WEF
As defined by the WHO, task shifting is the process of delegation whereby tasks are moved, where appropriate, to less specialized health workers. By reorganizing the workforce in this way, task shifting can make more efficient use of the human resources currently available.
Advantages of task-shifting as codified in the Alma Ata declaration on primary health care include it’s potential to address health worker shortages, reduce costs for training and remuneration, and shift care to cadres that are more easily retained in rural areas.
Many fear that task-shifting will reduce quality. But the evidence often states the opposite. A 2008 comprehensive study by Luis Huicho and colleagues published in the Lancet, compared results across four countries. They 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.
Similarly, a systematic review of almost 3000 research papers, published in the Human resources for health journal, concluded that non-physician health care workers are able, with careful training and supervision, to deliver equal and sometimes better results than doctors. Similarly, there is now considerable evidence regarding the possibility of shifting tasks from professionals or mid-level workers to lay or community health workers.
A new report from the U.K. think tank Reform claims that only one of three people who visit a GP surgery are ill enough to need to see a doctor and that the remainder could talk with a practice nurse instead.
However, the task-shifting literature suggests that delegation of tasks from one part of a weak health system to another is no more likely to be successful than the status quo unless more fundamental structural changes to strengthen the health system are brought about. Therefore in addition to task shifting policy, fundamental changes to strengthen weak healthcare systems must be undertaken simultaneously to increase the chances of a successful outcome.
Conclusion
Whether or not we like it, task shifting is going to become an increasingly important competent of healthcare delivery in Nigeria. We currently do not produce anywhere near the number of doctors we need to provide adequate healthcare; particularly in primary healthcare centers and rural areas. It is therefore imperative that we begin to think about how to implement an effective task-shifting policy to improve the quality and efficiency of the Nigerian healthcare system.