BJN Awards 2019: gastrointestinal/IBD nurse of the year—runner-up

The inspiration for the development of the nasogastroscopy service at our Trust started in October 2016 at the National Nurse Endoscopist Group annual meeting in Birmingham. During the conference, there was a presentation on nasogastroscopy by nurse endoscopist Anna Benton from Portsmouth NHS Trust. Her presentation outlined the benefits of the technique, how she had trained to complete the procedure and the benefits of the technique for patients. Part of her presentation included a live demonstration of a nasogastroscopy test on a volunteer (Dan, one of the company representatives), who kindly volunteered to starve on the day.

My background in endoscopy has mainly been in upper gastrointestinal (GI) work. I trained as a nurse endoscopist before the Joint Advisory Group on Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (JAG) (https://www.thejag.org.uk) was established in the 1990s. My work followed my husband to the South West, and I have been working for Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust since 2015.