Updated protocols for safer solutions with a new indwelling bowel management system
Ashlee F Garcia
Banner Health, USA
: J Regen Med
Abstract
Indwelling bowel management systems (IBMS) have been designed to divert transient fecal incontinence away from the patient’s skin and also assist in the prevention of crosscontamination through different vectors. Current IBMS have shown to cause patient harm with evidence of anal erosion, and no apparent protocols have been made available to guide safer clinical practices. A protocol with defined inclusion and exclusion criteria for placement, management, as well as best practices to maintain patency of the IBMS device is essential for safe and effective care. The purpose of implementing these new protocols is to provide ease of use, broader patient eligibility, more reliable quality outcomes, and precise guidelines to steer decision making and improve the standard of care with IBMS use. A recent innovation in IBMS design facilitates broader patient eligibility, patient safety, diversion of stool, reduced leakage, and infection prevention. Nurses evaluated the innovative stool management kit (SMK) at the bedside, and 95% agree that it helps reduce pressure injury onset/worsening and protects the patient’s skin integrity. The advancement in design provides a safer solution to diversion and eliminates the risk of the balloon over inflation thus reducing the risk of rectal ulcerations. IBMS with balloon anchoring results in anal atony from 8% to 25% of the time where the new SMK has had 0% of incidences of anal atony due to its anatomical placement. Updated protocols will guide appropriate use of the SMK, reduce the chance of harm to patients and improve quality outcomes.
Biography
Ashlee F Garcia is a Certified Wound, Ostomy and Continence Nurse (CWOCN), as well as a Certified Foot Care Nurse (CFCN) and works at Banner University Medical Center, Tucson as the Burn Services Coordinator and inpatient wound and ostomy services. She is the President-Elect for the local Tucson Affiliate of the WOCN society. Ashlee graduated with her Bachelor’s degree from Southern Utah University in December of 2009 and received her certifications from Emory University in 2013. She is currently enrolled at Walden University in the Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner program.
E-mail: e: farrer71@gmail.com
