Introduction The UK Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Audit first round (R1) of 2006 was the first UK audit within gastroenterology and demonstrated marked variation in resources and quality of care. Round two (R2) was in 2008. Quality Care Service Standards for Patients with IBD recommends the appointment of an IBD nurse within the IBD team. 2008 R2 audit results are compared between hospitals with an IBD nurse in both rounds, hospitals with an IBD nurse only in round 2 and hospitals with no IBD nurse in either round.

Methods Standards and questions were based on the BSG document 'Guidelines for the management of inflammatory bowel disease in adults1 along with consensus of the UK IBD Audit Steering Group. A dedicated web tool was used for both audits, with context specific online help, internal logical data checks and feedback for more complete and accurate data.

Results 150 sites submitted IBD nurse organisational data in both R1 and R2: 55% (83) with IBD nursing in both rounds, 11% (17) gaining an IBD nurse between rounds, 31% (46) with no IBD nurse in R1 and R2. Searchable databases of IBD patients existed in 64% of sites with IBD nursing in both rounds, 69% of sites gaining an IBD nurse and only 9% in sites without IBD nursing in either round. Significant differences were noted in favour of IBD nursing for written information on patient relapse, for patients seen in clinic within 7 days, transitional services between children and adults, and patient forum involvement.

Conclusion Evidence demonstrates that IBD nurses are instrumental in developing new services enabling better access for patients to healthcare, and are involved in education, training, research and audit, with high patient satisfaction.2 Audit data are observational and no direct causal link with IBD nursing can be inferred. Results do not reflect the number of sessions per week dedicated to IBD care nor how long IBD nurses had been in post. Nevertheless the observed correlations are encouraging in regard to the importance of the IBD nurse, within the multidisciplinary team, in enhancing the quality of care for patients with IBD.