Expanding Ostomy Education through Social Media

WOC nurses face the challenge of providing patients with comprehensive, high-quality ostomy education.  Physical and emotional stress, confusion secondary to anesthesia, shorter hospital stays, and the myriad of basic skills to master all contribute to a difficult situation.  Patients often travel long distances for surgery and return home where specialized care may not be available.  Manufacturer sponsored tools and resources and a wealth of online materials have failed to satisfy the needs of new ostomates.  

A reality is that acute care nurses have limited time during at the hospital stay and specially trained nurses are not always available in post acute care.  Although a wealth of education is available online, patients are as likely to find poor quality, incorrect information as high quality, meaningful education.  Getting patients to attend and participate with the local ostomy support group is a positive step but often falls short of meeting the need for education.  In our rapidly growing area (population > 750,000), more education was clearly needed.   A popular one hour group education class was added immediately before the support group in 2015 and yet more was needed.  Our challenge was to deliver meaningful education to patients in small, easily understood segments.

Wednesdays with YOUR WOC, was our solution to the problem. The idea was a weekly 15-30 minute lesson or video posted on the the local ostomy support group's social media site.   Lessons cover a wide variety of critical topics.  Prior to the initial posting, the site averaged <40 views/ week.  The increase in engagement and participation jumped to an average of 321 views/week after the launch of this innovative program.

Challenges included the time commitment needed for the weekly content and the inability to reach those individuals who were not able or willing to access social media.