What's in My Bag? Creation of Ostomy Product Kits for Pediatric Nurses and their Patients

PRACTICE INNOVATION TOPIC

What’s in My Bag? Creation of Ostomy Product Kits for Pediatric Nurses and their Patients

PURPOSE: Ostomy care presents numerous challenges to staff and patients.  Nurses without special training or extensive experience may find the provision of ostomy care to be a fear-producing, confidence-reducing activity.  This is especially true when working with a pediatric population whose ostomies often require highly specialized and individualized care routines.  One free-standing children’s hospital became increasingly aware that ostomy care and product choice had become a significant problem.  Staff, patients, and families were becoming increasingly anxious about ostomy pouch changes related to delays in obtaining products, not providing patients and their families the correct product, and faulty pouch placement.  Educational material was not readily available and the limited knowledge base of the nursing staff led to poor patient outcomes such as, leakage, skin breakdown, and a fear of pouch changes.  The use of incorrect products led to product waste and financial cost incurred by the facility.

OBJECTIVE: A quality improvement project was developed that included education and aspecific tool to decrease anxiety and improve outcomes.  The education emphasized basic ostomy care, product selection and product application.  The main tool is an ostomy kit assembled in material management in a “go bag” that provides the necessary materials for both first time and established ostomy patients.  Ostomy kits are stocked in the patient units and are equipped with supplies necessary to apply an ostomy appliance along with materials to educate the family. 

OUTCOMES: Preliminary polling of nurses indicates that there is decreased anxiety when selecting ostomy products for patients.   There is a time-saving component and a possible cost saving for the hospital with decreased product waste.  More formal data will be collected over the next few months to evaluate the effectiveness of this quality improvement project.