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Having nurses perform gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy is becoming more common in the U.K. and the U.S. In this multi-institution, randomized trial, U.K. investigators compared the effectiveness of physicians with that of nurses in performing esophagogastroduodenoscopy (EGD) and flexible sigmoidoscopy.
Thirty nurses and 67 physicians participated. Of 4128 eligible patients with GI symptoms, about half agreed to be randomized to nurse endoscopy or physician endoscopy; 655 patients in the nurse-endoscopy group and 641 patients in the physician-endoscopy group had adequate 1-year follow-up data. No differences were found between groups in GI symptoms at 1 year or in anxiety levels at any time. One day after their procedures, patients in the nurs…