Wilma Kok-Kuipers (56), the first nurse endoscopist in the Netherlands, is a pioneer, pioneer, medical ‘development worker’ and – for a few months now – knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau. “You know what moves me? That a nurse can also be a knight. That our work is appreciated. Nice, isn’t it?”
Endoscopy – it is and remains a remarkable profession. She nods. “I used to hate the dentist. When I saw a dental assistant, I thought: what makes you sit next to those open mouths all day? You don’t do that, do you? Now I do it myself, but at the butt. I’m pretty much the dental assistant of the stomach, intestines and liver department.
I insert the scope up to the cecum, the last point of the colon. As I slowly withdraw the scope to actually examine the bowel, patients often wake up a bit from their sedation. “Do you do this all day?” they then ask, with an undertone of disbelief. But then they turn out to be in front of a screen all day long. No, that’s nice. Then let me mess around here.”
Waiting for the doctor
Wilma Kok-Kuipers is passionate about her profession, let that be clear. For over thirty years. She is affiliated with the Northwest Hospital Group, whose main locations are Den Helder, Schagen and Alkmaar. Initially, as a nurse, she was not allowed to perform endoscopies, which was reserved for a specialist. Then she had to wait.
“Sometimes we had a new, young surgeon. He had to figure out for himself with his two left hands how he was going to do that intestinal examination. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I’ve seen a lot of budding doctors mess around. I thought: So I can do this too. One day I was waiting for the doctor again. ‘We can start! Otherwise I’ll do it!’ Just kidding, but you know: in every joke there is a signal. The doctor said, “That’s actually good, Wilma. Start’.
The patient, an older man, was also fine with it. Well, and it all worked! I then had the confirmation that an endoscopy for a nurse is very easy to do. We are now talking about 1997. That doctor was Jan Sindram. ‘Wilma,’ he said, ‘this is the future. Nurses will soon take over all kinds of tasks from specialists. Just wait and see’.”
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