The nursing preparation of stoma patients for self-care

The changes brought about by stoma surgery require that patients re-learn self-care skills with regard to elimination. This is accomplished as an integral part of postoperative nursing care. In this paper, some of the findings of a study are presented on the nursing preparation of stoma patients for self-management of their appliance. The observations made showed that, even at the end of their postoperative period in hospital, the patients in the study was receiving considerable nursing assistance in the management of their appliance and had not demonstrated new self-care skills for all aspects of the physical care of the stoma. It is concluded that these findings highlight a need to examine the methods of preparation for self-care of stoma patients in hospital, as containment rather than control of elimination remains a key issue in their rehabilitation.