The Role of the Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Assessment and Management of Biologic Therapies

Randomized controlled trial of a nurse‐led rheumatology clinic for monitoring biological therapy

“…Medical assessment is important and should form the basis of care, but the patients' own experiences of their condition must also be taken into consideration. The nurse's role is to provide care based on the patient's needs and to support her/him on the healthcare journey (Oliver 2011). This trial has demonstrated that there is no clinically relevant difference in outcomes between a nurse-led rheumatology clinic and a rheumatologist-led clinic in patients with low disease activity or in remission, undergoing biological therapy.…”

“…Medical assessment is important and should form the basis of care, but the patients' own experiences of their condition must also be taken into consideration. The nurse's role is to provide care based on the patient's needs and to support her/him on the healthcare journey (Oliver ).…”

“…The nurse's role has developed into that of an expert with in‐depth nursing knowledge and competence of how to provide evidence‐based care and support patients to become co‐actors in the care (Arvidsson et al . , Palmer & El Miedany , Oliver ). Collaboration between patient and nurse is a prerequisite for participation and making patients co‐actors (Sahlsten et al .…”

“…When treated with subcutaneous injections, a nurse teaches the patients how to administer the injection, but some patients report missing regular contact with a nurse (Larsson et al 2010). The nurse's role has developed into that of an expert with in-depth nursing knowledge and competence of how to provide evidence-based care and support patients to become co-actors in the care (Arvidsson et al 2003, Palmer & El Miedany 2010, Oliver 2011. Collaboration between patient and nurse is a prerequisite for participation and making patients co-actors (Sahlsten et al 2008).…”

“…Patients experienced greater wellbeing and satisfaction with the care in nurse-led clinics as well as improved quality of care (Wong et al 2005, Lewis et al 2009, Clark et al 2010, Chin et al 2011, Schadewaldt & Schultz 2011. To enhance the quality of care by means of a more holistic approach, nurse-led rheumatology clinics have been proposed for patients with low disease activity or in remission who are undergoing biological therapy (Palmer & El Miedany 2010, Oliver 2011. Nurse-led clinics will enable the rheumatologist to prioritize and allocate more time to patients with early RA or high disease activity who require more frequent monitoring or change in medication, leading to the desired treatment outcome (Grigor et al 2004, Schipper et al 2012.…”