There have been a growing interest in the effectiveness of task-shifting as a strategy for targeting expanding health care demands in settings with shortages of qualified health personnel.

To explore the reasons for task-shifting and the healthcare settings in which task-shifting are successfully applied as well as the challenges associated with task shifting.

Literature searches were conducted on PubMed and Google Scholar using the search term – ‘Task shifting’ and Task-shifting’.

Reasons for task-shifting including: a reduction in the time needed to scale up the health workforce, improving the skill mix of teams, lowering the costs for training and remuneration, supporting the retention of existing cadres by reducing burnout from inefficient care processes and mitigating a health system's dependence on highly skilled individuals for specific services. Clinical settings in which task-shifting models of care have been successfully implemented, include: HIV/AIDS care, epilepsy and tuberculosis care, hypertension and diabetes care and mental healthcare. Finally, challenges which hinder the successful implementation of task-shifting models of care, include professional and institutional resistance, concern about the quality of care provided by lower lever health cadres and lack of regulatory and policy frameworks as well as funding to support task-shifting programmes.

The review brings to light important health policy and research priorities which can be explored to identify the feasibility of using task-shifting models of care to address the critical shortage of health personnel in managing emerging communicable and non-communicable diseases, including opportunities for expanding mental health care in conflict and under-resourced regions globally.

The author has not supplied his/her declaration of competing interest.