To practice medicine and surgery or dentistry 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. After a prescribed number of years in active practice, one may complete a further one or two-year residency programme in order to specialize in any approved branch of clinical medicine and surgery such as anesthesia or pediatrics, or get an advanced medical qualification from the university. 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. "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 who may upgrade to a similar level by becoming Assistant Medical Officers (AMOs) or Medical Licentiates (MLs)."medical assistants/Sub Assistant Community Medical Officer" in Bangladesh, a Four Year medical diploma course conducting state medical faculty of Bangladesh under ministry of Health and family welfare. A clinician can specialize in any other field that is deemed appropriate by them and not just clinical medicine. China also has masters of clinical medicine. In countries like Tanzania, UK, and other countries, clinical medicine is regarded as a medical course and graduates are allowed to apply to masters of medicine specialties. 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). Worldwide, patients are seen by many other practitioners other than the traditional doctor such as:  A clinical officer takes the Hippocratic oath and, depending on jurisdiction, may be registered by the same statutory board as physicians (in the southern countries such as Zambia and Malawi) or a separate board (in the eastern countries such as Kenya and Uganda).