Cooperation of a stoma nurse with multidisciplinary team

A stoma is an opening of a hollow organ on the surface of the body. The care for a stoma aims at returning a patient to ordinary life and it is exactly in this process that a stoma nurse should help the patient. The stoma nurse guides the patient through the pre-operative preparation, the post-operative preparation and also through the outpatient preparation in which the patient visits the stoma nurse in a stoma clinic. Cooperation of the stoma nurse with other members of the multidisciplinary team is important because it makes it possible for the stoma nurse to meet all the needs of the patient. The theoretical part deals with the anatomy and physiology, definitions stoma stoma and also the history of its development in nursing. The next chapter deals with the indications, types of stoma and possible complications. The chapters on preoperative and postoperative care, nutritional advice and clubs for stoma patients. Other chapters are devoted to stoma nurses. The primary intention of the thesis is to meet one objective which is to find out how a stoma nurse cooperates within the framework of a multidisciplinary team in various departments of a healthcare facility. The following hypothesis was set for this objective: "The integration of a stoma nurse in a multidisciplinary team is different in every department." The research question was: "How is a stoma nurse integrated in a multidisciplinary team?" The research was carried out by means of a quantitatively qualitative investigation. A method of questioning using the technique of questionnaires was used for collecting data in the quantitative research of the bachelor's thesis. The questionnaires were addressed to nurses in the internal medicine and surgical wards. The collected data were evaluated by means of processed graphs. The qualitative research was carried out with stoma nurses in the surgical ward by means of interviews. The quantitative survey implies that the shift nurses in a surgical ward cooperate much better with the stoma nurse than nurses in an internal medicine ward. In the surgical ward the cooperation is better in terms of communication with shift nurses because they exchange information about patients with stomas, the occurrence of complications and the nursing procedure. On the other hand, in the internal medicine ward this communication in many cases does not work. In most cases the nurses at the internal medicine ward do not feel a need to communicate and discuss the care for a patient with the stoma nurse. The stated objective was achieved using the research question and the confirmation of the hypothesis. From a qualitative investigation implies that stoma nurses are integrated in the education of patients before and after operations. The pre-operative preparation includes also the drawing of a suitable place for a stoma on the body of a future stoma patient. In most cases they discuss a suitable procedure of caring for a stoma patient with shift nurses and inform each other about the occurrence of complications. If they are interested, the stoma nurse informs the nurses of new appliances and findings from seminars. She has got also her own specific documentation where she writes down details about patients. Two stoma nurses also point to the option of cooperating with a nutritional therapist as a part of the nutritional consultation of a patient with a stoma. When cooperating with a physical therapist the stoma nurse informs him of the patient's overall condition and the physical therapist provides total rehabilitation. The results of the findings established by this bachelor's thesis will be provided to the management of hospitals where this research took place