Nurses' use of patient notes to chart bowel care management for the palliative care patient

Little is known about nurses' knowledge base and practice in the provision of Bowel Care Management (BCM). Recently, a study designed to investigate both factors was conducted in two hospices, one in New South Wales and the other in South Australia. Twenty-four nurses and 100 palliative care patients participated in the study. The audit of patients' medical records, one of several research methods used in the study, will be discussed here. The research identified that in all but two cases, patients' information about their BCM practices used in the home environment was not documented on their admission to the hospice. Further, the considerable number of charts used in each hospice to record BCM generally asked for information related to bowel function and the use of pharmaceutical preparations, to the exclusion of other methods of management.