Lansley’s experiment with the NHS must never be repeatedHIV care shift from doctors to nurses
A trial into “task-shifting” from doctors to nurses in HIV care has proved a success, according to an article in the medical journal The Lancet.
Researchers on the study found that antiretroviral therapy (ART) by trained nurses in primary care was just as safe and effective as doctor monitored care.
Between 2005 and 2007, 812 patients with HIV in South Africa were assigned ART care by nurses (408) or doctors (404).
Of the patients treated by nurses, 192 (48%) experienced treatment failure, while there was a similar number, 179 (44%), in those treated by doctors.
At the end of the two-year study, researchers found there had been 10 deaths in those treated by nurses, compared with 11 treated by doctors.
There were 44 viral failures in those treated by nurses, and 39 by those who received care from doctors, while toxicity failures amounted to 68 and 66 respectively.
According to the article, the task-shifting success could ease the critical shortage of healthcare workers, while expanding access to ART care to millions of people across the world.
Currently, there is a global shortage of 4.3 million health workers, which prompted the World Health Organisation to propose task-shifting from doctors to lower level healthcare workers.
The authors of the study said the findings “lend support to the strategy of task-shifting, and suggest that HIV management by nurses can be safe and effective, probably even for those starting therapy with advanced HIV infection”.
Click here to see the report
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Readers' comments (1)
mike | 16-Jun-2010 11:41 am
I have said this many times before but I will repeat it again, because the articles keep on coming.
Nurses and Doctors have two different and seperate careers that often overlaps to be fair, but is still seperate.
But just how many studies are needed, how many traditional Doctors roles have to be taken over by Nurses (and done to a very high standard), how much do Nurses have to do, before our profession gets pay on par with a Doctors and gets the status and recognition we deserve as a skilled and knowledgeable profession in our own right?
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