Patient satisfaction with nursing consultations in a rheumatology outpatient clinic: a 21-month randomised controlled trial in patients with inflammatory arthritides

Objective To study the effect of individual nursing consultations in patients treated with disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in a rheumatology outpatient setting. Methods Patients with inflammatory arthritides (IA) who had started with a DMARD regimen 3 months before were randomised to two different follow-up consultation systems: either follow-up by a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) or by a medical doctor (MD) in rheumatology 3, 9 and 21 months after randomisation. The primary outcome was patient satisfaction measured by Leeds Satisfaction Questionnaire (LSQ). Secondary outcomes included coping, disease activity, pain, fatigue, patient's global assessment of disease activity and health related quality of life. Effects at 9 and 21 months were estimated by Least Square means calculated from the final mixed model. Results Of 68 patients randomised, 65 patients completed assessments at 21 months. Statistically significant improvements in favour of the CNS group were found in all LSQ subscales (all p values