152 153 Intestinal Disease Meeting Berlin 2006 - Dr. Falk Pharma ...

Live Demonstration
Endoscopy 2006 – Live Demonstration
G. Costamagna, J. Devière, P. Fockens, K. Gellert,
F. Hagenmüller, R. Kiesslich, P.N. Meier, H. Neuhaus,
G. Niemann, T. Ponchon, T. Rösch, N. Soehendra,
C.B. Williams, and the OZK-Endoscopy-Team
Moderators: R. Drossel, Berlin; S. Faiss,
Hamburg; L. Familiari, Messina; F. Hagenmüller,
Hamburg; M.-L. Hermans, Euskirchen; M. Jung,
Mainz; H. Martin-Nowacki, Berlin; H. Neuhaus,
Düsseldorf; U. Pfeifer, Düsseldorf; J.F. Riemann,
Ludwigshafen; T. Rösch, Berlin; G. Schachschal,
Berlin; W. Schiffelholz, Augsburg; R. Schöfl, Linz;
H.-J. Schulz, Berlin; J. Špičák, Prague; K. Wietfeld,
Marl; E. Zehnter, Dortmund; C. Ziegeler, Berlin
The live demonstrations, transmitted directly to
the congress hall from the Sana Klinikum in
Berlin-Lichtenberg, attracted broad interest.
About 1,000 physicians and nurses were able to
watch 30 patients with disorders of all segments
of the gastrointestinal tract were examined and
treated by German and international experts.
Viewers were able to see first-hand that the
limits of endoscopic therapy have broadened
significantly past large common bile duct stones
or large polyps in the colon.
Endoscopy – soon a procedure for
nurses?
It is also a matter for discussion to what extent
endoscopic examinations and procedures can
be performed by health care professionals other
than physicians. In other countries, for example,
in Great Britain, it has become an established
Congress Short Report Falk Symposium 152
C.S. Neumann
fact that simple examinations are entrusted
to specially trained endoscopy nurses, said
C.S. Neumann (Birmingham). “The doctor shortage
and ever longer waiting lists have forced
the issue.” Prerequisite for nurses to perform
these procedures is that they complete a formal
course and regular training, as is also required
for physicians, C.S. Neumann said. In such
cases, as experience in England has shown,
endoscopic procedures performed by nurses
are acceptable.
English endoscopy nurses started with simple
examination techniques, such as esophagogastroduodenoscopy
(EGD) without sedation of
the patient. The spectrum, however, has since
expanded, C.S. Neumann said. Procedures requiring
sedation have also become the domain
of endoscopy nurses in many English clinics.
Similarly, sigmoidoscopy without polypectomy
has been entrusted to trained nurses, while even
removal of polyps is done by nurses in certain
hospitals. “It has even been discussed whether
we may even perform emergency procedures,”
the endoscopy nurse noted.
She warned that such considerations should best
be decided ahead of time. The trend of allowing
endoscopy to pass partially from the hands of
physicians into those of allied health professionals
can hardly be stopped, once it has started.
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