Nurses’ roles in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis: a systematic review

In 2011 EULAR first published recommendations for the potential role of nurses in the management of patients with rheumatic diseases. To perform a literature update for the role of nurses in the management of chronic inflammatory arthritis (CIA) from 2010 to 2018. A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines, in accordance with the search strategies and eligibility criteria of the EULAR taskforce. The eligibility criteria were “inflammatory arthritis”, “interventions undertaken by nurses” and “relevant outcomes to answer the research questions”. Exclusion criteria were in itself contradictory outcomes, insufficient data, consideration if they did not clearly distinguish between nurses and health professionals or focused on chronic other than rheumatic diseases. Systematic reviews were classified as descriptive and excluded. Quality of selected trials was determined according to Oxford—levels of evidence 2009. A total of 48 articles and 10 abstracts were identified fulfilling the eligibility and exclusion criteria. Recommendation 1 has been well established in Europe so far. New evidence strengthens the recommendation 3, and—at least in part—recommendation 6. High evidence strengthens recommendation 4, especially for outpatients with low and stable disease activity. Some new evidence also exists for recommendations 7 and 8. This SLR reveals new evidence for the role of nurses in managing CIA patients since 2010, especially for RA-patients with low disease activity or in remission.