{"id":97,"date":"2009-02-26T12:38:19","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T16:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gutcheck\/?p=97"},"modified":"2009-02-26T12:38:19","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T16:38:19","slug":"should-nurses-be-performing-endoscopy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/should-nurses-be-performing-endoscopy\/2009\/02\/26\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Nurses Be Performing Endoscopy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two provocative articles recently appeared in BMJ (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/338\/feb10_1\/b231\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmj.com\/cgi\/content\/abstract\/338\/feb10_1\/b270\">here<\/a>) showing that experienced, well-trained nurses are as clinically effective \u2014 but not as cost-effective \u2014 as physicians in performing diagnostic upper endoscopy and sigmoidoscopy.<\/p>\n<p>This randomized trial definitively answers the question of whether nurses <em>can<\/em> deliver high-quality endoscopy, but the larger question is whether they <em>should<\/em> be performing these procedures. I think they should, but only if they\u2019ve been trained in both the technical performance of endoscopy <em>and<\/em> the management of digestive diseases (this, by the way, goes for physicians as well!). Endoscopy is, after all, not just a procedure, but a tool used to detect, diagnose, and treat GI disease. When it is used as such, the outcomes are usually good, as demonstrated in the BMJ articles. When\u00a0it is treated simply as a procedure, however, outcomes can be poor, and one is left to wonder whether the tool is being wielded simply as an income generator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two provocative articles recently appeared in BMJ (here and here) showing that experienced, well-trained nurses are as clinically effective \u2014 but not as cost-effective \u2014 as physicians in performing diagnostic upper endoscopy and sigmoidoscopy. This randomized trial definitively answers the question of whether nurses can deliver high-quality endoscopy, but the larger question is whether they [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11,13],"tags":[35,46,54,56],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-endoscopy","category-medical-education","category-patient-care","tag-endoscopy","tag-nurse","tag-sigmoidoscopy","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/gastroenterology\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}