Introduction: Increasing demands on healthcare systems mean that nurses are taking on more roles as physician extenders. Capsule endoscopy (CE) is a laborious procedure where specialist nurses could reduce physician workload and rationalise resource utilisation. The aim of this review and meta-analysis is to consolidate data on nurses' performance in small bowel CE (SBCE).
Materials and methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted for randomised controlled trials and comparative studies on nurses in SBCE reading compared to physicians. We examined the performance of nurses compared to SBCE-trained physicians.
Results: Sixteen relevant studies were identified, with 820 SBCE examinations involving 20 nurses. 11/16 studies reported the numbers of SBCE findings detected. Overall, the pooled proportion of all findings reported by physicians and nurses was 86%. Studies involving nurses with endoscopic experience showed a summative detection rate of 89%. 7/16 studies reported the number of videos where there was agreement between the nurse and physicians for overall findings/diagnosis. The overall proportion of videos with agreement was 68%. In studies where nurses had endoscopy experience, the proportion of videos with agreement was 71%.
Conclusion: Our meta-analysis supports a more active role for nurses in SBCE reading. We suggest nurses can function as independent CE readers in general, given adequate training and formal credentialing.
Keywords: Capsule endoscopy; diagnostic test; meta-analysis; nurses; physician extenders; systematic review.