Clinics
摘要
Inflammatory bowel disease is a lifelong, chronic condition consisting of two main subtypes: ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD). It is often characterized by an unpredictable disease course with fluctuating periods of quiescence and flares despite optimal therapy. As a result, the clinical management of patients with IBD requires flexibility. A large proportion of patients are managed in an outpatient setting. An outpatient clinic model aims to address a number of issues, including prompt access appointments for those patients who are experiencing an exacerbation of their disease, those who are experiencing side effects to medical therapy, those who require modification to their therapy, and those who require monitoring, education, counselling, and support. Nurses play a key role within the multidisciplinary team by providing clinical support, education, and advocacy. In a traditional clinic setting where face-to-face follow-up appointments are scheduled at the time of the clinic visit, there is a shortage of availability for medical appointments. As a result, many specialist IBD nurses are filling in the required gap by setting up nurse-led follow-up clinics. As a consequence, creative ways of conducting follow-up appointments are being considered through virtual clinic follow-up visits, telephone follow-up visits, or distance self-management. This chapter will cover face-to-face and virtual (telephone and video) clinic appointments; however, e-visit and distance management will be discussed more in the e-Health (Chap. 50 ) and advice line (Chap. 53 ) chapters.