Summary
Results from our audit of IBD Nurse Specialists has shown that IBD nurse specialists are increasingly focused on IBD-specific care compared with our last audit in 2019. Fewer IBD Nurse Specialists were covering other areas such as general gastroenterology and endoscopy. Nearly 50% of those surveyed were still early in their IBD Nurse Specialist career, having been in the role for less than 5 years, with only 20% overall having been educated to master's level.
Although the results were indicative of an increase in nurse numbers since the 2019 audit, there is still need for improvement with issues reported around recruitment and retention. Only an estimated one third of services meet the nationally agreed standard of 2.5 nurses per 250,000 of population (with a caseload of 500 patients per nurse). The data upon which the nationally agreed standard was developed is based on lower prevalence data than we have now so it is likely that the caseload for individual nurses has increased, impacting the service that can be provided.
