Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) continues to pose significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges for clinicians worldwide. This session, led by Dr. Laurenda Obeng, will provide a comprehensive update on current best practices and emerging developments in the management of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. The talk will cover advances in understanding disease pathophysiology, diagnostic innovations, and the expanding role of biologics and small molecule therapies. Emphasis will be placed on early risk stratification, personalised treatment strategies, and multidisciplinary care. Attendees will gain practical insights into optimising patient outcomes, improving quality of life, and integrating new evidence into everyday clinical practice.

Over the last 2-3 years, endoscopy procedures have become more complex, through development and implementation of new skills, giving patients a shorter hospital stay. However, this has meant the sedation given in the endoscopy department is deeper, and patients were still being monitored with standard NIBP, pulse oxymetry, and standard ECG. Capnography has now given us a furhter non-invasive monitoring of tidal CO2, although it is used in an aneasthetic setting, it has.now been recognised by BSG as gold standard for monitoring patients under deep sedation within a non-anaesthetic setting, such as endoscopy departments. This presentation will talk through our journey from novice to expert in the use of capnography.

Discussion of the experience of transgender and gender diverse patients, and the role gastrointestinal nurses can play in making practice more inclusive and focused on patient wellbeing within endoscopy departments.

Recognising patients as experts in their own experience is key in maintaining clear, timely and relevant information provision across their cancer journey. With the help of our patients through focus group workshops, online survey, iterative feedback a multi -media approach to information provision was created. This approach promoted understanding, empowerment and shared decision making. This project demonstrated the value of meaningful patient involvement in developing cancer information resources.

With the implementation of AI recording clinic consultations, the question has to be asked will this really portray the approach that is needed to support the real needs of our IBD patients ? This session will cover the consultation skills that IBD Nurse Specialists need to provide hollistic care and support their patient's through their journey.

Clinical negligence costs the NHS over £2billion annually and yet many professionals working in the system do not have a clear understanding of what defines negligence and how cases of perceived harm make it as far as legal proceedings. This session will provide an overview of clinical negligence, the law underpinning medical-legal cases, the role of the expert witness and how this knowledge can influence practice and why we don’t need to be perfect practitioners.

The RCN Gastrointestinal Forum Committee are a group of 7 professionals who aim to promote, develop and support nursing within the speciality in the UK. Using a strategy of listening, learning and leading we are able to lead the development of multiple initiatives and collaborate on projects to advance patient care within gastrointestinal nursing.

The RCN's Gastrointestinal Forum Committee presents a selection of new research on topics such as liver competencies, IBD evaluation and more.

This session will focus on getting enteral feeding “right first time” in adults with gastrointestinal disease. It will explore when enteral feeding is appropriate, when parenteral nutrition should be considered, and how to select the safest and most suitable feeding route in common GI scenarios. Practical guidance will be provided on tube choice, timing of initiation, confirmation of tube position, and prevention of refeeding syndrome. The session will draw on real-world clinical experience from GI, surgical, and transplant settings and is designed to support nurses in making confident, evidence-informed decisions that improve patient safety and nutritional outcomes

At ASCN UK we have been working on the Advancing Stoma Care Services (ASCS) project and as part of this work we began to realise the challenges faced by specialist nurses in regards to role definition. We have begun work to look at the levels of practice, as defined by NMC and RCN, and collate these into descriptions that can support specialist nurses to effectively advocate for themselves, in terms of agenda for change banding and also security in what clinical and professional competencies they can safely undertake.

The plethora of role titles combined with the varying levels scope of practice can leave commissioners confused and specialist nurses vulnerable- we believe this needs definition and that we are best placed to advocate for ourselves. This presentation aims to explore what we have done so far, the challenges we have faced and most of all to stimulate discussion and interest in an area which we historically may have felt was imposed upon us rather than managed by us.

Ruling Addictions Out of Your Differentials explores how substance use and dependence are often overlooked or misattributed in gastrointestinal presentations. Drawing on clinical evidence and practice examples, this session challenges assumptions that separate “Nursing” and “Addiction” care. Delegates will examine how alcohol, prescribed drugs, and emerging substances can mimic or mask GI conditions, and how unconscious bias and structural stigma influence diagnostic reasoning. The session offers a pragmatic approach to taking a substance-aware history, improving safety, and reframing addiction as a key consideration within holistic gastroenterology assessment.