A quality assessment of inflammatory bowel disease nursing care in Finland: a nationwide cross-sectional descriptive study

Abstract

Objectives of the article

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) nursing has been identified as a crucial component in the IBD service delivery. This article aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the state of IBD nursing care in Finland, and to identify areas that would benefit from further research.

Materials and methods

Tertiary IBD outpatient clinics nationwide were invited to participate in a cross-sectional descriptive study conducted using an electronic survey. The quality of IBD nursing services was assessed using the Nursing Care Quality in IBD (NCQ-IBD) evaluation tool.

Results

Of the 34 identified clinics, 27 participated (79.4%) in the study. The NCQ-IBD tool classifies the clinics in four categories, where A indicates the highest level of quality, and D the lowest. In this study, 26 clinics (96.3%) were classified at level C, and one clinic (3.7%) at level D. Nursing responsibilities in IBD management and informing the patients were at a high level of quality, whereas nursing research in IBD was at a low level. An IBD database (i.e. clinical IBD registry) was in use only in 10 clinics. Although training in the clinical aspects of IBD was readily available, there was a lack of training plans for IBD, and clinics seldom held an annual review of the IBD nursing activities and outcomes. There were very few clinics using structured indices and questionnaires, and only 16 clinics (59.3%) applied a written IBD protocol.

Conclusion

In the Finnish IBD nursing service, as measured with the NCQ-IBD tool, several areas for future improvement were identified.

Keywords:

• Inflammatory bowel disease
• IBD nurse
• IBD nursing service
• quality of care
• NCQ-IBD

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank all the IBD nurses who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by an unrestricted working grant for the principal researcher (EN) by the Finnish non-profit Emil Aaltonen Foundation (grant number 220154 N1), Emil Aaltosen Säätiö.