The DECLARATION OF GABORONE: A UNITED NOMENCLATURE FOR PHYSICIAN ASSOCIATES AND CLINICAL OFFICERS

Physician Associates and Clinical Officers have been part of the global health system since antiquity role-playing simple healthcare services such as wound dressing to complex clinical care services including emergency surgical amputation. Physician Associates and Clinical Officers have existed in different dispensations and ages spreading to different geographical locations under different nomenclature in accordance with national interests. Historical perspectiveThe twentieth century has recorded over thirty-four (34) different nomenclature in about eighty-four countries worldwide. The nomenclature Feldsher existed during the 15th century; the name means “field shearer” and was used for barber surgeons in the German and Swiss armies during the 17th century until its formal establishment during the 18th century. The German Feldshers played key role as combat medics with a wide variety of clinical and surgical duties including amputation during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870s. They played frontline healthcare duties with specific focus on curative care, preventive care, obstetric care, emergency care of various medical conditions and restorative and surgical care as part of the German military healthcare system. Feldshers would later become indispensable part of the Russian healthcare system extending from the Soviet Union with the establishment of the first Felshers labour union in the 1900s.