Non-Physician Endoscopy: How Far Can We Go?

BACKGROUND The delegation of medical tasks to trained nurses is still little discussed in Germany. METHODS To get a picture of the current extent of non-physician endoscopy worldwide, we performed a systematic literature research. The following databases were used: CINAHL®, Cochrane Library, the German National Library of Medicine (ZB MED), OPAC, DIMDI, PubMed and MEDLINE. The research words were: nurse and practitioners or nurse clinician and diagnosis and organization and administration. Actual journals and references were used to find relevant studies (hand research). RESULTS Non-physician endoscopy has been well established in some European countries, in the USA and in several other countries in the western world. CONCLUSION The implementation of such programs should be based on solid scientific consideration and evaluated within the framework of the 'delegation rights'.