GENCA IBD Nursing Foundation School a hit

Carly Bramley PG Dip Nursing, Designated Nurse Prescriber CNS Gastrointestinal SCDHB NZ IBD Nurse Committee Education Lead. IBDNA Education Sub-Committee member. Private Bag 911, Timaru, 7940 p: 027 684 0012 e: cbramley@scdhb.health.nz

Within New Zealand there are currently no official nursing Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) education papers or courses. Most of the education for the IBD nurses around the country comes from on the job training either from the consultants they work with, other IBD nurses already in the service or from Pharma sponsored meetings. Whilst this has been acceptable to a point, it does not provide a good foundation for IBD nurses with a basic knowledge of IBD, and what is required for ongoing monitoring, assessment and treatment. An NZ IBD Nursing Audit (pending publication) also confirmed that more than 80% of nurses in New Zealand had no access to specific IBD education. This is despite the continuing increase in the number of people with IBD in New Zealand (BPAC, 2021).

The IBD nurses around the country have wished for a formal IBD course to provide a foundation for their knowledge and to provide a formal certificate to show they are “qualified” to do their role.

The NZ IBD Nurse Committee has made formal links with the Gastroenterological Nurses College of Australia (GENCA) which provides the IBD Nursing Foundation School and IBD Advanced Nursing School courses to Australian nurses, either working within the IBD field or with patients with IBD in a ward or infusion setting. This formal arrangement between both groups has allowed for a reduced fee for non-Australian membership requests, this was negotiated between Marian O’Connor (CNS Crohn’s & Colitis, Taranaki) who sits on the GENCA board since 2019.

GENCA have now offered the IBD Nursing Foundation School course in a virtual format, which is an excellent step for New Zealand nurses in accessing some formal education in IBD. The course was subsidised by Abbvie, but there was a fee for each nurse to attend, however this was reduced if you were a GENCA member, which GENCA have made available for those nurses not practicing in Australia, but are interested in the education and resources they provide. The course was compromised of 9 different modules including: The Role of the IBD nurse, Anatomy, Physiology and Pathophysiology, Assessment Tools in IBD, 5-ASA and Corticosteroids, Immunomodulators in IBD, Biologics in IBD, Preventative Care in IBD, Blood, Stool and Opportunistic Infection Screening and The IBD Helpline. Each module had a small quiz following the module, and at the end of the course each participant was required to complete a case study to obtain their certificate of attendance.

The response from NZ nurses was excellent with 15 of the 100 participants hailing from New Zealand. A few people who attended the course were able to provide some feedback, here are a few snippets from their feedback:

I found it was great for consolidating my knowledge and increasing my understanding 2 years into the job. Donna – Northland DHB

The work load was manageable, completing one module a week and then finishing the course with a case study. I would highly recommend it to anyone either starting in the field or wanting to broaden their nursing knowledge base. Lisa – Capital & Coast DHB

I think this course gave us important skills and will help assessing our IBD patients better, using the various scores. It will also help understanding the implications of these scores to their care and monitoring needs. Irit – MacMurray Centre, Auckland

As I am part of the IBD Nurses Australia (IBDNA) Education sub-committee I was tasked with teaching and marking the assignments on this course as part of the foundation schools planning. I enjoyed teaching on the course, I presented the section on Biologics in IBD and the monitoring of patients on Biologics. This was great for my knowledge as teaching others consolidates our own knowledge (Jarrett, 2018). As there are only two biologics available in New Zealand, but five in Australia, I had to research the three other biologics in depth, and this was

useful as I’m hoping these drugs may be available in New Zealand in the near future. I will then have the confidence to educate my patients about these drugs if they do become available, and I will understand what these drugs do in more depth. Australian practice is slightly different to New Zealand practice, so I had to find the right balance in teaching nurses from both countries to ensure both parties understood my presentation, and could infer meaning as required for their own practice.

It is great that this opportunity has opened up with GENCA to provide education in IBD to New Zealand nurses, particularly as we have had some new nurse’s start within the IBD group, but it is also great for those who have been in the role for a while and just want a refresher for the fundamentals in IBD.

Hopefully there will be further IBD Nurse Foundation Schools as well as the IBD Nurse Advanced School, which I think will provide further education for the more complex situations we often find ourselves in within IBD. The NZIBDNG aim to continue our formal links with GENCA, with both myself and Marian O’Connor, in our current roles focused on maintaining these links, moving forward. I look forward to continuing my time on the IBDNA Education Sub-Committee and the NZ IBD Nurse Committee as the Education Lead and hopefully finding myself part of more great opportunities like these.

Jarrett, C. (2018). Learning by teaching others is extremely effective – a new study tested a key reason why. Available at:https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/05/04/learning-byteaching-others-is-extremely-effective-a-new-study-testeda-key-reason-why/

BPAC. (2021). Inflammatory bowel disease – a focus on Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Available at: https://bpac.org. nz/2021/ibd.aspx

Link to GENCA membership page: : https://www.genca.org/ membership/join-now/