BLOG

Smarter Workload Strategies for Nurses Safeguard Qualitative Care in European Healthcare Systems.

20/10/2025

Camille Ronsin

The Hidden Pillar of Multiple Sclerosis Treatment: How Smarter Workload Strategies for Nurses Can Safeguard Qualitative Care in European Healthcare Systems.

Context

Over 1 million Europeans live with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), most diagnosed in their 20s and 30s. MS is a chronic disease of the central nervous system, causing symptoms such as fatigue, vision and motor problems, cognitive changes, and difficulties with speech, mobility, and bladder function.

80% of people with MS are unemployed within 10–15 years of diagnosis.
40–60% reduce social and leisure activities, especially in advanced stages.
There is no cure, but modern therapies and rehabilitation can delay disability and improve quality of life, work participation, and wellbeing.

Specialised nurses are essential to make therapies effective. They are the workforce ensuring:

monitoring MS drug treatment efficacy,
managing complex symptoms and side effects,
providing comprehensive patient education and
supporting diagnostics procedures.

However, recent findings from a study conducted by the MS Nurse PROfessional programme reveal alarming trends:

An average caseload of 516 patients per nurse, far above the recommended level;
Widespread unfinished clinical and psychosocial work, largely due to excessive administrative burden and lack of integrated care;
Strong consensus among MS nurses on the need for systemic change: more specialised staff, integrated and multidisciplinary care teams, streamlined processes, and referral authority.

Our concrete, evidence-based recommendations

1. More specialised nurses caring for PwMS (incl. digital skills)

We need more secondary school students to pursue a career in nursing and more available positions for them to study
We need affordable and accessible advanced training following the nursing degree on neuroscience nursing and this should include multiple sclerosis
We need affordable and accessible continued medical education opportunities for nurses on multiple sclerosis treatment and care
We need affordable and accessible trainings on digital skills for neuroscience nurses

2. Access to psychologist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, social worker for PwMS

We need reimbursement schemes that enable PwMS to be referred in an affordable manner to allied healthcare workers
We need these HCP to be available (sufficient in number) and accessible (in-person or virtually) for PwMS

3. Access to and a central role for nurses within the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) and ability to independently refer

Any nurse getting in contact with a PwMS should be part of a multi-disciplinary care team, working in the same electronic patient health record (ePHR).
Nurses that have advanced training in multiple sclerosis treatment and care should be the person that keeps the overview of the treatment and care provision to the PwMS (It is: monitoring from the healthcare provider’s point of view the clinical care pathway of the PwMS).

Nurses that have advanced training in multiple sclerosis treatment and care should be able to independently refer a PwMS to a psychologist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist or social worker.

4. Less and more efficient paperwork & streamlined administration utilising digital technology

Projects should be implemented that map the current admin burden on nurses and other care workers with the objective to reduce it by 25% by 2030.
Any nurse should have access to in-person or remote administrative support
Nurses should have access to effective digital tools that make any administrative work more efficient (e.g. note taking, updating ePHRs, …)
PwMS should remain owner of their own health data and should have access to an ePHR that allows them to see their clinical care pathway, including upcoming appointments (and ability to reschedule), test results and contact details of their care team.

5. Nurse independent prescriber qualification is available*

Nurses that have advanced training in multiple sclerosis treatment and care should be granted the authority to prescribe certain medications related to multiple sclerosis symptom management.

* We acknowledge that in many healthcare systems, this requires an evolution of the legal and training framework.

How can you contribute

We have launched a call for contributions, inviting MS nurse and patient to share their testimonials to support us in advancing our recommendations.

I want to contribute as a nurse!

I want to contribute as an MS patient!

Our next steps

Building on this momentum, we are now preparing two key sessions, an online policy meeting and a live session at the European Parliament, bringing together European and national politicians, policymakers, and healthcare stakeholders. The goal is to share our findings and address one of the most pressing challenges in healthcare today — how to care without burning out — by exploring smarter workload strategies for (MS) nurses across Europe.

We want to confront the systemic challenges faced in multiple sclerosis (MS) care and to present concrete recommendations that can both improve patient outcomes and enhance nurses’ working conditions.

Join us in shaping that future!

Community updates Clinical Impact workload management healthcare systems