Abstract Background Tanzania is experiencing a severe shortage of human resources for health, which poses a serious threat to the quality of health care services particularly in rural areas. Task shifting has been considered a way to address this problem.
This article analyzes the performance and self-perceived competencies of ENMs at the dispensary level; the lowest health facility in Tanzania. Methods This was a mixed methods study conducted in rural Tanzania. The interviews were supplemented with quantitative data from 59 ENMs. Both thematic and descriptive analysis approaches were used. The community members as well as ENMs and their supervisors knew that ENMs must sometimes provide care that is outside their scope of training and competency.
Conclusions The results highlight performance and self-perceived competencies of ENMs in struggling to meet community health needs. Additionally, these results highlight the health care system shortfalls in supporting and developing an adequate number of qualified health care professionals so that health care needs of all citizens, including those in rural areas, are met.
In SSA, the scope of the health workforce crisis is alarming in the sense that, there is insufficient adequately trained human capacity of all cadres [ 1 ].
In most parts of SSA, the crisis is particularly severe in rural areas where most health workers prefer not to work. Also, it has been noted that the most common factors that pull health workers, including nurses, away from jobs are the lack of incentives and amenities, as well as limited opportunities for career progression [ 2 , 3 ].
