In the absence of explicit direction, front-line health workers may assume tasks for which they are inadequately trained, supported, or monitored [ 16].
Approximately one in six F1 year doctors felt they had been required to perform clinical tasks for which they felt inadequately trained.
Approximately one in six of the most recent graduates felt they were sometimes asked to perform tasks for which they felt inadequately trained, a proportion which did not change a great deal across the cohorts.
More importantly, there was no significant linear trend across the cohorts in the level of agreement with the three statements on training (figure 1), educational opportunities (figure 2) and the requirement to perform clinical tasks for which respondents felt inadequately trained (figure 4); p>0.05 in each case.
Overall, 30% agreed their training had been of a high standard; 38% agreed educational opportunities had been good; 52% agreed they had to do too much routine non-medical work; and 16% agreed they had to perform clinical tasks for which they felt inadequately trained.
Despite the importance of health workers' perceptions in implementing task shifting, this area is inadequately addressed by the current research, which provides more anecdotes than data on stakeholder perceptions.
An inadequate minimum wage, inadequately enforced, is a key issue.
Physicians trained in modern medicine may find themselves inadequately prepared for this task; the simplest option practiced by most physicians would then be to denounce all such products.
It is worrying that an appreciable minority of respondents in each year reported that they found themselves undertaking clinical tasks for which they felt they were inadequately trained.
Inappropriate Tasks - No trainee should be expected to perform work for which he/she is inadequately trained, which is of no relevance to his/her educational objectives, or which is prohibited by GMC/GDC guidelines (for example taking consent inappropriately).
But gauging and addressing needs are different, and a Pentagon task force last year described the military mental health system as overburdened, "woefully" understaffed, inadequately financed and undermined by the stigma attached to PTSD.
