Ask-the-Nurse Program Study

This paper is intended to provide evaluative data designed to enhance nursing services to multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to benefit MS Society staff and stakeholders and to enhance the Ask-the-Nurse program. The Ask-the-Nurse program was initiated at the Michigan Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in July 2001. A volunteer nurse knowledgeable in MS care is available via telephone to answer questions raised by MS clients statewide. Phone calls were tracked for 14 months to assess the needs of clients of the National MS Society–Michigan Chapter. Most calls concerned medication, basic clinical information (“Do I have MS?”), National MS Society programs and services, and information requests. It is recommended that other MS Society chapters institute Ask-the-Nurse programs, that Web-based data collection methods be implemented, and that more detailed evaluative data be collected. (Int J MS Care. 2003; 5: 15–21)