Impact of a rheumatology expert nurse on the wellbeing of patients attending a drug monitoring clinic

Abstract

Consultation with an expert rheumatology nurse in a drug monitor clinic may add value in terms of improving patients' perceived ability to cope with the arthritis.

The effectiveness of nurse-led care in people with rheumatoid arthritis: A systematic review

“…Results from some of the outcomes could not be pooled because they were assessed using different measures (for example; Hill (1997) used the Leeds Satisfaction Questionnaire to measure satisfaction but used a different questionnaire). In some studies, different measures were used to assess different aspects of the same outcome and it would not be appropriate to combine the results of, for example, disease activity measured by plasma viscosity (Hill et al, 1994, Hill et al, 2003 with those measured by DAS28 (Hill et al, 2003, Ryan et al, 2006, Tijhuis et al, 2002. The outcomes that could not be combined were summarised in a tabular form with corresponding sizes of effect, 95% confidence intervals and P-values where applicable.…”

“…The 7 included articles (Hill, 1997, Hill et al, 1994, Hill et al, 2003, Ryan et al, 2006, Tijhuis et al, 2002 represented only 4 RCTs. All studies were conducted in the UK and the Netherlands and the pooled sample size was 431 patients (nurse-led care = 181, usual care = 250).…”

“…The fourth study (Ryan et al, 2006) compared drug monitoring by a clinical nurse specialist to outpatient clinic nurse monitoring (reporting to a rheumatologist). Participants were 71 adults with RA who were starting new disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs at a district hospital (36 nurse-led care/35 usual care, mean age = 58 years, male:female ratio = 31:40).…”

“…Three studies reported disease activity using DAS28 (Hill et al, 2003, Ryan et al, 2006 and 2 used plasma viscosity and Ritchie articular index (Hill et al, 1994, Hill et al, 2003. The pooled effect size for DAS28 were inconclusive (RoM = 0.96, 95%CI = 0.90 1.02, P = 0.16) (Figure 3).…”

“…In 1 study , HAQ-DI and MACTAR were used while the other 2 studies (Hill et al, 2003, Ryan et al, 2006 Quality of life was assessed in 1 study , Tijhuis et al, 2002 Patient knowledge was assessed in 2 studies (Hill et al, 1994, Hill et al, 2003 using the Patient Knowledge Questionnaire and the pooled effect size favoured nurse-led care (RoM = 4.39, 95%CI…”