Reassessing value in IBD services: clinical freedom and shared decision-making for optimal care

Lisa Younge (RGN, MSc) is the IBD Nurse Consultant at St Mark’s Hospital in Harrow. She has over 20 years experience in GI and IBD nursing, setting up and evaluating services with the aim of delivering patient centred care. She has previously been the secretary of the RCN IBD Specialist Interest Group, the nurse representative on the BSG IBD Section, and Chair of NECCO. She currently works one day per week with Crohn’s & Colitis UK as a Nursing Programme Manager, supporting the charity’s campaign to improve access to suitably trained and supported IBD nurses for patients across the UK, and represents the RCN on the IBDUK steering group, who produced the updated IBD Standards in 2019. She is passionate about IBD and working with patients to develop services which truly meet their needs. She also has a husband, a teenage son and a dog called Bingo, who has become a bit of a virtual star during lockdown Teams and Zoom meetings!

She started her career in a large central London Teaching Hospital where she completed her post graduate pharmacy diploma.

She then moved on to more specialist rotations at another London Teaching Hospitals where she gained experience in: intensive care, neurology, medicines information and microbiology.

She joined St Mark’s Hospital in 2017 as the specialist joint intensive care and gastroenterology pharmacist, where she reviewed gastroenterology and critically ill post-surgical patients.

She then moved to an IBD and homecare role in 2020 where she helped to develop pharmacy-led clinics focusing on medication optimisation, drug safety and enhancing the patient experience.

Recently, she has taken on the role as Lead IBD pharmacist for St Mark’s Hospital and is keen to develop the IBD service further in this new role.