Mirte Versloot (31) is one of the first fifteen people in the Netherlands to be trained as a professional expert in gastrointestinal or liver diseases (gastrointestinal or liver diseases). As a child, she discovered she had irritable bowel syndrome. Because she is ill herself, she knows how important personal guidance can be for patients. At the Summa College in Eindhoven, gastroenterological patients who want to do so learn within a year how they can use their personal story to support others in their recovery.
The new training arose from a clear wish of patients themselves. A total of 4 million people have some form of gastroenteritis. More and more people indicate that they need someone who understands what they are going through and can support them in the recovery process.
Mirte has had to deal with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) all her life. Simply put, this is a communication problem between the brain and the gut. This causes a lot of pain and bowel problems and your digestion quickly becomes disrupted. “There is nothing medically wrong with your intestines themselves, there is no disease or inflammation.” That makes it difficult to treat, because there is no pill against ‘bad communication’.
Doctors therefore did not really know how to help her. “I often thought: if only I had gallstones or an infection, then at least they could do something.” She felt powerless and was so ill that she had to stop working and went to live with family in Apeldoorn. “I had stomach ache, diarrhea and was often so tired that climbing the stairs was too much to ask,” she says.
She then started to focus entirely on her recovery. “By adjusting my diet and following hypnotherapy, I was able to train my brain to calm down and not keep sending alarm signals to my intestines.”
“The healthcare system is too burdened to help people how to deal with their illness.”
When Mirte was ill, she needed support from someone who had experienced the same thing as her. “Health care in the Netherlands is good,” says Mirte. “But it does not always match what a patient needs, especially if your complaints are not medical.”
She gives an example of someone else from the course who has a stoma after cancer treatment: “Her cancer is gone, so medically speaking she is healthy,” says Mirte. But how do you live with a stoma? “The healthcare system is not aimed at helping people with this, while the patient does have these questions.”
The new course is a work-and-learn process. Mirte works in a hospital in Amersfoort and has study days in Eindhoven. “I complement the gastroenterologist, he makes the diagnosis. “If patients want, they can then receive one-off support from me as an expert. We talk, provide information and discuss the different treatment options.”
While the doctor mainly looks at symptoms and medication, Mirte’s role supplements: for example with therapy and nutrition. “For many people, these choices are unknown. Unlike doctors, experienced experts have the space to supplement medical care.”
“Experts add hope to the healthcare system.”
So Mirte works in the hospital with a gastroenterologist. Not all hospitals work together with experienced experts. Many of Mirte’s fellow students work at patient associations or welfare organizations. “There is still a lot of discussion about where exactly this role belongs.”
Yet experts with experience make a world of difference according to Mirte. “Patients feel supported. They recognize something in my story. They regain hope. That is something we really add to the healthcare system.”
The training at Summa College is an initiative of, among others, the Gastroenterology Fund, the Ostomy Association and the PDSB.