Patients' Access to Telephone and E-mail Services Provided by IBD Nurses in Canada

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) can impact the quality of life and increase health care resource utilization. Nurses play an integral role in ensuring ease of access to care between scheduled office visits.

This study aimed to capture the utilization of Canadian IBD nursing telephone and e-mail services.

A descriptive cross-sectional study with an eight-item online survey was completed by nurses to assess the use of nurse-led telephone and e-mail services for IBD patients.

Twenty-one IBD nurses participated, and 572 patients nurse encounters were reported. Patients with ulcerative (UC) contacted with disease flare when compared to Crohn's disease (CD) (40% versus 24%, P < 0.001). Nursing services were primarily utilized for queries regarding medication (39.3%), disease exacerbations (29.6%), investigations (26%), and scheduling appointments (17.6%). Patients with CD had more telephone conversations (62.7%) and required more follow-up telephone calls (72.2%) compared to patients with UC (33%) and 25%, respectively. Nurse-managed interventions were provided independently for 61.4% of encounters, while 19% required a scheduled appointment in the IBD clinic. In the absence of telephone or e-mail assistance, older patients were more likely to call their family doctor (r = 0.18, P < 0.001), visit the emergency room (r = 0.18, P < 0.001), visit an urgent access clinic (r = 0.22, P < 0.001), or visit a walk-in clinic (r = 0.29, P < 0.001) than younger patients.

Nurse-managed IBD advice lines are proactive services that can address most patient disease-related concerns.