FRI0742-HPR Eular recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis: 2018 update

Background: During the past years an increasing number of papers regarding rheumatology nursing have been published, which may contribute to a higher level of evidence and increased insight into the nurses’ roles. Objectives: To update the EULAR recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis (IA) (1). Methods: The EULAR standardised operating procedures were followed to integrate available higher level of evidence and new insights of nursing care in the treatment of patients with IA. The EULAR Task Force comprised 15 nurses, 2 patient research partners, 1 physiotherapist, 1 psychologist, 1 occupational therapist, 1 medical student and 2 rheumatologists of whom one was also methodologist. A total of 17 European countries were represented. The systematic literature review included available literature from 2010 until December 2017 and was performed in the databases Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane Central, CINAHL, PsycINFO and in the 2016/2017 ACR and EULAR conferences abstracts. The original search stragegy was used with no limitations applied with regard to publication type, research type or language. Titles, abstracts and full texts were screened for eligibility independently by the fellow and the convenor. Results were shared with the task force to check for comprehensiveness. Subsequently, the steering committee prepared proposals for update and rewording of the ten recommendations. The proposals were discussed with the Task Force in a one day consensus meeting and final agreement was obtained by voting. Results: A total of 51 studies was included. Some studies added to existing evidence with a higher level of evidence to nurses’ contribution regarding patients’ satisfaction with care, cost-effectiveness, and self-efficacy, and also for the benefit of nurses’ extended roles to patient outcomes as well as structured training aiming at improving nurses’ skills. Additional evidence was found for needs-based patient education and telemonitoring. Two recommendations remained unchanged, six were reworded, two were merged and one recommendation was deleted and reformulated as an overarching principle together with the formulation of two additional overarching principles (figure 1). The level of agreement from each Task Force member will be retrieved by email. Figure 1 EULAR recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of CIA: 2018 Update Conclusions: A total of three overarching principles and eight evidence- and expert opinion-based recommendations have been formulated, that provide an up-to-date guidance of nursing care in rheumatology. Reference 1. van Eijk-Hustings Y, van Tubergen A, Bostrom C, et al. EULAR recommendations for the role of the nurse in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis. Ann Rheum Diss2012;71(1):13–9. Disclosure of Interest: None declared