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A clinical officer (CO) is a medical professional in East Africa and parts of Southern Africa who is trained and licensed to perform general or specialised medical duties such as diagnosis and treatment of disease and injury, ordering and interpreting medical tests, performing routine medical and surgical procedures, and referring patients to other practitioners. A clinical officer is an independent practitioner (unlike nurses and physician assistants) who is trained in the medical model to practice the full scope of medicine and provides routine care in general medicine or within a medical specialty such as anesthesia and carries out treatment that is outside the nurses' scope. A clinical officer usually oversees a health center or a district hospital and is part of the medical team in bigger hospitals where one may head a department or work under a senior clinical officer or a physician.〔Mullan F, Frehywot S. Non-physician clinicians in 47 sub-Saharan African countries. ''Lancet''; 2007, 370: 2158–63.〕〔AMREF. (''Clinical Officers''. ) Accessed 6 April 2011.〕〔Kruk ME et al. Human Resource and Funding Constraints for Essential Surgery in District Hospitals in Africa: A Retrospective Cross-Sectional Survey. ''PLoS Medicine''; 2010 http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000242〕 ==Overview== To practice medicine and surgery as a clinical officer one requires at least four years of full-time medical training, supervised clinical practice and internship at an accredited medical training institution and hospitals and registration with the relevant medical board in their country. One may then upgrade their qualification to a bachelor's degree at the university or, after three years of general medical practice, specialize in a field such as pediatrics, surgery, psychiatry and anesthesia - or get an advanced general qualification in medicine and surgery - by completing an additional one or two years of residency training. There are no pathways (post-basic or post-graduate entry-level conversion programs) for nurses and other health workers hence it takes at least eight years of specialised medical training and experience for a clinical officer to graduate with a post-basic qualification. It should be noted, however, that "clinical officer" in some countries such as Tanzania and Zambia refers to a different cadre of health workers, comparable to "medical assistants" in Malawi, who have less than three years of training but may upgrade to a similar level by becoming Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs) or Medical Licentiates (MLs). No significant difference has been demonstrated in studies comparing treatment decisions, patient outcomes, quality of care provided and level of knowledge about diseases between a clinical officer and a medical officer (a non-specialist physician) except in countries where nurses were mistakenly assessed as clinical officers. However, because of the nature of practice, populations served and resources at ones disposal, a clinical officer is less likely to administer expensive treatment, prescribe expensive (but not necessarily better) drugs or engage in futile care. The success of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment initiatives in Africa is mostly attributed to use of clinical officers to diagnose the disease and provide comprehensive medical care. Access to emergency obstetric care through greater deployment of the clinical officer is one way of attaining the Millennium Development Goals 4 (reducing child mortality) and 5 (improving maternal health).〔University of Birmingham. (''Major analysis shows value of non-physician clinicians for maternal health in sub-Saharan Africa''. ) Posted on 20 May 2011.〕 Worldwide, patients are seen by many other practitioners other than the traditional doctor such as: *Osteopathic physicians, Podiatrists, Optometrists and Anesthesiologist assistants in the United States *Emergency and Clinical Officer Pakistan *Physician Assistants in the United States, United Kingdom, Liberia and Ghana *Assistant Doctors in China,〔()〕 *Surgical Care and Emergency Care Practitioners in the UK,〔()〕 *Assistant Physicians in Saudi Arabia,〔()〕 *Health Extension Officers in Papua New Guinea〔()〕 *Medical Assistants in Fiji *Assistant Medical Officers in Malaysia *Surgical Technologists in Mozambique *Clinical Associates in South Africa.〔World Health Organization. ''Classifying health workers''. Geneva, WHO, 2010.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clinical officer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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