SynthesisThe European journal of general practice2021
Task shifting in primary care to tackle healthcare worker shortages: An umbrella review.
Synthesis in The European journal of general practice, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 118 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
118 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 208 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impact of team-based primary care on health care utilization among patients with mental and substance use disorders: a systematic review of English-language articles.Family practice · 2025Pooled it
- Integration of psychological interventions in multi-sectoral humanitarian programmes: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2024Pooled it
- Task shifting from general practitioners to other health professionals in out-of-hours primary care - a systematic literature review on content and quality of task shifting.The European journal of general practice · 2024Pooled it
- Community Optometrist-Led Monitoring of Quiescent Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration: The FENETRE Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Disparities in the Treatment Engagement Cascade of Collaborative Care for Depression in a Pragmatic Implementation Study.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Trial
- The impacts of task shifting on the management and treatment of malnourished children in Northern Kenya: a cluster-randomized controlled trial.Health policy and planning · 2024Trial
- Are practice nurse-led patient consultations acceptable for the general population in Germany? Results from a population-based survey.The European journal of general practice · 2026Article
- Task shifting from general practitioners to nurses and the association with patient flow and resource use in out-of-hours primary care clinics: a descriptive register-based study.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- "Exploring vertical task shifting: perceptions and experiences of nurses and general practitioners in Norwegian general practice - a qualitative study".Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2026Article
- Developing pharmacist practice through a pilot family practice preceptorship programme: a prospective quantitative pre-post evaluation.International journal of clinical pharmacy · 2026Article
- Voice of Asia: Provision of Patient-Centered Care in Oral Cavity Cancer: A Qualitative Study With Patients, Caregivers, and Healthcare Professionals in Five Asia-Pacific Regions.Asia-Pacific journal of clinical oncology · 2026Article
- Clinical Performance and Implementation of AI-Enabled Paediatric Ophthalmic Screening, Triage, Diagnosis, and Surveillance in Primary, Community, and Referral-Linked Pathways: A Systematic Review.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Behavioral and Mental Wellbeing in Indigenous Communities: A Protocol for Developing an Educational Program for Nurses, Community and the Health Care Workforce Serving Indigenous Communities.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
- Implementing a checklist to strengthen IMCI-based assessment of childhood illnesses in an urban primary care setting in Delhi: a quality improvement initiative.BMJ paediatrics open · 2026Article
- When Policy Exists but Practice Fails: Rethinking Cognitive Screening as a Public Health Delivery Problem.Preventing chronic disease · 2026Article
- Primary healthcare system readiness for the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases in Nepal.Research square · 2026Article
- Frontline providers' perspectives on ageing in place: negotiating older adults' self-responsibility, preventive services and community support.BMC primary care · 2026Article
- Capacity building through workforce training and community engagement for Surgical, Obstetric, Trauma, and Anaesthesia (SOTA) care: Case studies from South Asia.Dialogues in health · 2026Review
- Identifying and measuring important outcomes for evaluating the impact of pharmacist prescribing in Ireland: A modified Delphi study.Exploratory research in clinical and social pharmacy · 2026Article
- The Evolving Landscape of Vision Rehabilitation: Current Status and Future Directions.Ophthalmic & physiological optics : the journal of the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (Optometrists) · 2026Review
58 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTask shifting is an approach to help address the shortage of healthcare workers through reallocating human resources but its impact on primary care is unclear.
objectivesTo provide an overview of reviews describing task shifts from physicians to allied healthcare workers in primary care and its impact on clinical outcomes.
methodsSix electronic databases were searched up to 15 December 2020, to identify reviews describing task shifting in primary care. Two reviewers independently screened the references for relevant studies, extracted the data and assessed the methodological quality of included reviews using AMSTAR-2.
resultsTwenty-one reviews that described task shifting in primary care were included. Task shifted include provision of care for people with chronic conditions, medication prescribing, and health education. We found that task shifting could potentially improve several health outcomes such as blood pressure, HbA1c, and mental health while achieving cost savings. Key elements for successful implementation of task shifting include collaboration among all parties, a system for coordinated care, provider empowerment, patient preference, shared decision making, training and competency, supportive organisation system, clear process outcome, and financing.
conclusionEvidence suggests that allied healthcare workers such as pharmacists and nurses can potentially undertake substantially expanded roles to support physicians in primary care in response to the changing health service demand. Tasks include providing care to patients, independent prescribing, counselling and education, with comparable quality of care.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.