Enhancing Collaboration in the Endoscopy Suite: Challenges, Perspectives, and Solutions

Excerpt

As the field of gastroenterology has evolved in recent years, one constant to providing excellent patient care has been the effective collaboration between physicians and nurses in the endoscopy suite. The endoscopy suite is a unique collaborative environment, with multiple providers equipped with different skillsets, all working toward the common goal of a safe and effective endoscopy procedure. Though some endoscopic procedures can be completed with only a physician and nurse present, often there may be the addition of an anesthesia team which may include a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) and additional nurses, endoscopy technicians, and trainees. The presence of such a complex team requires all team members—led by the gastroenterologist and endoscopy nurse in the suite—to devote particular attention to effective collaboration to achieve the best possible clinical outcomes. In this paper, we describe the difficulties in attaining this level of collaboration before sharing our perspectives on optimizing the physician–nurse relationship in the endoscopy suite and opportunities to further improve this partnership. …