The role of inflammatory bowel disease nurses for patients on biologic therapy during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background:During the COVID-19 pandemic, many inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) centres had to reorganise their work, and multidisciplinary teams, including IBD nurses, have had to try to deliver services to patients as safely as possible.Aims:This survey aimed to assess the thoughts, opinions and feelings of IBD patients on biologics regarding the efforts of IBD nurses to organise care during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods:An evaluation survey based on an anonymous questionnaire was distributed to IBD nurses in five Italian IBD centres, in parallel.Findings:Of 306 participants, 55.6% had Crohn's disease and 44.4% had ulcerative colitis. Most (79.1%) were aware of the specialist IBD nurse role, and 75.8% could distinguish it from generalist nurses. Of patients, 99.7% felt IBD nurses were competent to care for their condition and 91.2% felt that IBD nurses could provide valid scientific information. Meanwhile, 81.4% had a good or excellent relationship with their IBD nurse. Patients reported that most nurses wore personal protective equipment (94.4%), promoted self-care (91.8%), asked about presence of fever or cough (84.3%), asked about patient health status (83.7%) and covered pandemic safety and social distancing rules (69.3%), but fewer spoke about patient mood (44.4%) or relevant benefits, rules and exemptions (26.8%). Most participants (77.8%) faced pandemic-related issues for infusions. Nearly all (97.4%) knew immunosuppressed people were vulnerable to COVID-19, but only 42.8% spoke to their nurse about it. Some 61.8% of patients were concerned about COVID-19, but only 39.2% raised this with the IBD nurse. However, many more patients spoke to a nurse about concerns regarding biologics (41.8%) and worsening IBD symptoms (46.4%) in the pandemic than the actual number experiencing these issues (13.7% and 4.3%, respectively).Conclusion:The results show that IBD patients appreciate the role of the specialist nurse in their care.