OP0289 PARE THE ROLE OF PATIENTORGANISATIONS ON THE EDUCATION AND ESTABLISHMENT OF RHEUMATOLOGY NURSE
Authors: Androulla Phoka Charalambous
Journal: Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases (2019)

<h3>Background</h3> Rheumatology Nurse is a practitioner well educated or with a specialty on Rheumatology diseases who help people with RMD's to live as fully independently as possible. A Big Part of the rheumatology nurse's job is to help patients with rheumatic diseases to release their pain and manage their symptoms. In Europe, the use of rheumatology nurses for the treatment of rheumatism is becoming more and more popular. In my country, this is not the case. There is still a lot of work to be done to apply the rheumatology practitioner. That's why our organization is pushing the government to implement in the system Rheumatology Nurse. <h3>Objectives</h3> During discussions between our organization and the Ministry of Health for asking the use of rheumatology nurse in the rheumatology outpatient clinic, since we don't have a rheumatology inpatient clinic, Ministry refused to give the authorisation with the justification of not having any nurse specialist, educated or interested to be educated on the rheumatology fields. So this was a challenge for our organization: The <b>"</b>Nurse Education on Rheumatology<b>"</b>. <h3>Methods</h3> The aim had various steps to achieve. The first step was to inform Government Nursing Services the significant of Rheumatology Nurse. The second step was to discuss with them the need for educated Nurses on rheumatology and their opinion. Third to persuade them to educate nurses on Rheumatology by organizing an Education Program. And the Last one but Very Important, part of the Education Program to be our organization not only as a presenter but to have an actual role as an associate with opinion, on the structure and themes of the program. <h3>Results</h3> The organisation had many meetings with the Government Nursing Services. The officers become very excited about the idea of having a New Education Program on such an interesting theme. After having a number of meetings about the development of the Program and after escaping the barriers, the program was done: Educational Program title "<b>Patient Care with Rheumatic Diseases"</b>. Duration of the training: 3 months, 1 day per week, with 3 days of Clinical Exercise on outpatient Rheumatology Clinic and 1 Day on the Care Department- preparation and delivery of biological and biosimilar factors. Success in the Program requires Final Written Evaluation (60%) and Case study (Presentation). Patient Organization: 5 Lectures- Workshops. The education took place from October to December 2018. 27 Nurses have been educated. The program includes between a lot of Lectures, Patient Raise Awareness and Patient Perspective which were given by our Patient Organization. The lectures were given from Organizations'Psychologist staff and from Volunteers Patient Experts for giving the patient perception for the treatment and for the self-management of their condition and Organization's Big Role regarding the disease awareness, treatment, and management. Organization conducted a survey among the participants and the results are very encouragingly to continue the tries to implement the Rheumatology Nurse in the outpatient and inpatient Rheumatology Clinics of the Country. At the question "after training will you be interested in working as a Rheumatology Nurse in a Rheumatology Clinic?<b>'The answer was YES for the 100% of the participants</b>. <h3>Conclusion</h3> The importance of nurses' involvement in the treatment of rheumatic diseases is enormous. This has been demonstrated in Europe. Our Organization shows the significant role of nurses for achieve the maximum results on the patient treatment. Also the organization has been able to prove the importance of the contribution of patients to better treatment of the disease. It has also demonstrated to the state the need for a Rheumatology Nurse and refutes their excuses. <h3>Disclosure of Interests</h3> None declared