Table 1.

Facilitating Factors and Barriers to Task Shifting in Uganda

Facilitating factors	Barriers
• Policy on task shifting	• The name task shifting
• Standard Operating procedures	• Poor health worker pay and conditions of service
• Better candidates entering the professions	• Lack of awareness
• Evidence of successful task shifting	• Lack of legal protection
• Lax regulatory environment	• Lack of policy and guidelines
• Poor law enforcement	• Corruption
• Institutional or programmatic guidelines	• Poor planning, unregulated task shifting
• High demand for health services	• Professional boundaries and regulation
• Scarcity of skills	• Poor community attitude
• Focussed initiatives, e.g. home based management of fever	• Professional protectionism
• International commitments, e.g. MDGs	• Heavy workload and high disease burden
• Functioning referral chain	• Reluctance to change
• Greater awareness on what task shifting was all about	• Limited knowledge and skills
• A task shifting champion	• Unemployment or lack of job opportunities for health professionals