Focusing on achievements

“The flexibility of specialist nurses, who adapted to the ongoing situation … deserves high praise and recognition” .

Novel stoma appliances to minimise complications and improve patient outcomes

A stoma is a surgical opening on the abdomen used to divert the passage of faeces (colostomy or ileostomy) or urine (ileal conduit) into an external adhesive pouch on the abdomen (Hill, 2020). The...

Stoma care services during the COVID-19 pandemic

The effect of COVID-19 on healthcare provision has been unprecedented. Elective surgery was cancelled in many hospitals due to lack of staff and beds (Fowler et al, 2020). Earlier this year even...

Review of a paediatric inflammatory bowel disease service during the pandemic and the impact of the CNS role

The authors undertook a retrospective review of clinical records and the IBD database from January 2019 to September 2020 at the Evelina London Children's Hospital, a tertiary paediatric...

Acute abdominal surgical presentations in children

A study conducted in Taiwan over 3 years, identified that 10% of 3980 paediatric patients who presented to the emergency department (ED) with abdominal pain had a true ‘acute abdomen’ (Tseng et al,...

Continence issues in individuals living with multiple sclerosis

Bladder and/or bowel dysfunction in MS can occur at the onset of the disease or any time during its course. It can impact either the bladder or bowel directly, through plaques damaging the areas of...

Using e-health tools and PROMs to support self-management in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

In order to test the concept of using PROMs to support practice and follow up a small-scale service improvement pilot project was designed. The aim of the study was to understand whether empowering...

Adapting a 2-week-wait colorectal service in the pandemic using the quantitative faecal immunochemical test

Bowel dysfunction after surgery

The function of the gastrointestinal tract is to ingest and digest food and fluids, absorb nutrients and eliminate any waste products (Tortora and Derrickson, 2014). Ingestion generally occurs via the...

Psychological issues affecting patients living with a stoma

More than two decades ago Bekkers et al's (1995) seminal study of patients' ability to cope with, and their expectations of life after, stoma surgery, included self-efficacy, task performance and...

Stoma formation as a palliative procedure: the role of the clinical nurse specialist in maintaining quality of life

Stoma formation as a treatment for colorectal cancer involves bringing out a section of bowel onto the abdomen as either an ileostomy (from the ileum) or colostomy (from the colon). A bag is then worn...