Nurse endoscopists in United Kingdom health care: a survey of prevalence, skills and attitudes

Objectives. To assess the prevalence and potential benefits of attitudes to wards nurse endoscopy in the United Kingdom (UK). Design. Postal questionnaire. Subjects. All hospitals in the UK with accident and emergency, general medi cal and general surgical services in October 2000. Main outcome measures. Number of teaching or district general hospitals emp loying nurse endoscopists, range of diagnostic and therapeutic endoscopic s kills and potential benefits to the endoscopy unit and patients. Results. Seventy-six hospitals employed 102 nurse endoscopists. Forty-four nurse endoscopists performed both oesophago-gastroduodenoscopy (OGD) and fl exible sigmoidoscopy with solitary OGD and flexible sigmoidoscopy performed by 17 and 31, respectively. Three performed full colonoscopy while seven c ould perform all three procedures. Nurse endoscopists were found to provide good patient care in the majority of endoscopy units with no compromise in safety. Lead clinicians were keen to restrict nurse endoscopy to diagnosti c OGD and flexible sigmoidoscopy only in the majority of units. Conclusions. Nurse endoscopy is widely practised in the UK and is not limit ed to one procedure or solely for diagnostic purposes. Benefits include goo d patient acceptability, improved care and safety. Most clinicians predict an important but restricted role for nurse endoscopy in contributing to end oscopic services.