Assessment of the practicability of implementing the EULAR recommendations for the role of nurses in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis in China

Abstract

Chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA) severely impacts quality of life in over 100 million people in China. In 2011, the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) developed recommendations for the role of nurses in the management of CIA. However, it remains unknown whether these recommendations could be fully implemented in China. Therefore, we aimed to solve the problem in this study. We conducted a nationwide cross-sectional study among 485 nurses in rheumatology and immunology departments based on an online questionnaire. The agreement of the recommendations by the subjects and the feasibility of the recommendations they believe were assessed by visual analogue scale (VAS). Our results showed that over 80% of the subjects agreed with each recommendation (VAS 5–10), and over 80% of the subjects considered the recommendations feasible (VAS 5–10). This study indicates that the EULAR recommendations can also be well implemented in China.

Perspective chapter: NURSE-LED EDUCATION FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC INFLAMMATORY ARTHRITIS

“…To improve the health of patients with chronic diseases, such as chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA), patient education provided by healthcare professionals plays a tremendous role [4]. CIA has an adverse effect on the physical and psychological functioning of individuals; this negative impact increases the severity of the disease [5], worsens the prognosis, and is often associated with a significant socioeconomic burden.…”