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Published on: August 1, 2019
Training of nurse practitioners and physician assistants to perform screening flexible sigmoidoscopy
1Division of Gastroenterology, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, Boston, USA.
Purpose:
To describe the colorectal cancer-screening program at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, a large multispecialty medical group, in which nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) perform screening flexible sigmoidoscopies.
Data Sources:
Scientific literature, consensus statements and guidelines, and the protocol utilized to train NPs and PAs to perform flexible sigmoidoscopy. Data from 9,500 screening procedures are presented.
Conclusions:
In comparison with gastroenterologists, trained NP and PA endoscopists perform screening flexible sigmoidoscopy with similar accuracy and safety but at lower cost.
Implications For Practice:
Screening flexible sigmoidoscopy performed by NPs and PAs may increase the availability and lower the cost of flexible sigmoidoscopy for colorectal cancer screening.
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