Abstract
The area of bowel care in the intensive care unit (ICU) is often overlooked in the holistic care of the critically ill individual. With the primary concern of optimising patients to preserve life the problem of bowel care has been given less priority. The guidelines included within this service improvement paper offer a simple approach to bowel care management with the use of an algorithm and visual display score to be used in conjunction with the algorithm. This was developed in the intensive care unit of the Royal Free Hospital, London and is presently in use.
MeSH terms
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Algorithms
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Cathartics / therapeutic use
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Constipation / etiology
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Constipation / nursing*
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Critical Care / methods*
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Critical Care / standards
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Critical Illness / nursing
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Decision Trees
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Diarrhea / etiology
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Diarrhea / nursing*
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Documentation / standards
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Education, Nursing, Continuing
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Enteral Nutrition / methods
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Enteral Nutrition / nursing
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Enteral Nutrition / standards
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Holistic Health
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Humans
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Inservice Training
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Needs Assessment
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Nursing Assessment / methods
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Nursing Assessment / standards
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Nursing Audit
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Nursing Evaluation Research
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Nursing Records / standards
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Nursing Staff, Hospital / education
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Physical Examination / methods
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Physical Examination / nursing
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Physical Examination / standards
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Practice Guidelines as Topic
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Total Quality Management / organization & administration