Eveline Hoefkens © Eveline Hoefkens

Belgium

N-ECCO National Representative:
Eveline Hoefkens
Job Title: IBD Nurse

What influenced your decision to apply for the role of N-ECCO National Representative for your country?

By being a national representative, you are actively involved in N-ECCO meetings. The yearly national representatives meeting at the ECCO congress is the ideal place to expand your network. You interact with IBD nurses from other countries and share experiences. It is a great opportunity to create an international network. 

Nensi Lusičić  © Nensi Lusičić

Vesna Oroz © Vesna Oroz

Croatia

N-ECCO National Representative:
Nensi Lusičić
Job Title: IBD Nurse

What influenced your decision to apply for the role of N-ECCO National Representative for your country?
Opportunity to become more involved in IBD.

Wladzia Czuber-Dochan  © ECCO

Petra Hartmann © ECCO

The ECCO IBD Nurse Education Programme was introduced in 2018, with Italy being chosen as the first country to run the Programme. The Programme consists of two face-to-face meetings, one at the beginning and one at the end of the Programme, six online modules that nurses complete as self-directed learning, and a one-week visit to an IBD centre in the home country. The Programme, which ran from November 2018 to May 2019, was coordinated by an experienced IBD Nurse, Simona Radice, with help and support from Gionata Fiorino, consultant gastroenterologist. Both Simona and Gionata work at Humanitas Hospital in Milan, where the face-to-face meetings took place.

Ana Ibarra © ECCO

On the evening of Thursday, March 7, 19 nurses from 13 countries across Europe participated in our yearly N-ECCO National Representatives Meeting.

As N-ECCO Committee Member responsible for the National Representatives, Kay Greveson welcomed the attendees, and this was followed by a short round of introductions. Four countries were happy to present their new National Representatives. An exchange of nurses every 2–3 years is greatly encouraged by N-ECCO, but many countries nevertheless retain the same National Representatives for more than 3 years. New people tend to mean new ideas, although some countries have different service setups and getting new representatives is sometimes difficult.

Susanna Jäghult  © ECCO

Petra Hartmann  © ECCO

The 10^th N-ECCO School in Copenhagen was attended by 68 participants from 24 countries, including dietitians and IBD nurses. The 10th N-ECCO School covered various IBD topics of interest to both nurses and dietitians who work with IBD patients. The aim was to enhance participants’ basic knowledge in IBD, enabling them to provide better support to IBD patients throughout Europe and beyond. The N-ECCO School has also come to serve as a great networking opportunity, allowing nurses and dietitians to share their experiences.

Kay Greveson © ECCO

The ECCO IBD Nurse Education Programme was introduced in 2018. Prior to embarking on the development of the programme, N-ECCO undertook a survey regarding the IBD nurse role in 2014 and found very large variation across Europe, with the role still being in its infancy in some countries. The level of education also varied. A scoping exercise was done to see whether there was a need for an educational programme. A total of 140 responses were obtained from a mix of clinical IBD nurses, nurses who reported that they cared for patients with IBD but whose role was not specifically IBD care, and research nurses. There was overwhelming agreement on the need for this type of programme and over 60% said that they had no accredited IBD course available to them. In all countries the largest provider of IBD training was the pharmaceutical companies. 

Anastasia N. Nicolaou © Anastasia N. Nicolaou

Cyprus

N-ECCO National Representative: Anastasia N. Nicolaou
Job Title: GI - IBD Nurse

What influenced your decision to apply for the role of N-ECCO National Representative for your country?
I work in a centre which sees a large number of IBD patients and therefore I felt the need to have a more active role. I have also applied for a PhD in a local university which has a research programme on IBD. 

Petra Hartmann © ECCO

Once again, N-ECCO is offering an outstanding range of clinical and educational opportunities for nurses attending the ECCO’19 Copenhagen Congress.

The programmes for each activity continue to be developed on the basis of the evaluation forms from the previous year in order to meet your needs.

Francesca Maria Onidi © Francesca Maria Onidi

The award of an N-ECCO Travel Grant, organised by ECCO, enabled me to spend time as an intern in the prestigious Inflammatory Bowel Diseases Centre at Humanitas Research Hospital, the largest IBD centre in Italy. The Centre provides the most innovative treatments and therapeutic strategies for IBD patients in accordance with current scientific evidence and offers a multidisciplinary approach to IBD with the help of industry experts and novel technologies. At the Humanitas outpatient clinic dedicated to IBD, patients are followed by IBD nurse Simona Radice. In addition to the provision of medical assistance to patients, the Centre is strongly engaged in research activities aimed at developing new treatments and diagnostic and/or therapeutic strategies. Participation in clinical trials is subject to a preliminary clinical evaluation during a specialist visit to the Centre.

Kay Greveson © ECCO

The first update of the N-ECCO Consensus Statements on the European nursing roles in caring for patients with Crohn’s Disease or Ulcerative Colitis was completed in 2018, led by one of the previous N-ECCO Chairs, Karen Kemp. 

The Consensus document focusses on the fundamental IBD nursing role and the role of the advanced Inflammatory Bowel Disease nurse, looking at factors that are more complex and need advanced IBD knowledge.