bowel care protocols

[gwenith]

Need some information. What do you use in your facillity as bowel care protocol esp. in relation to ICU patients.

When do you intervene for constipation?

What do you use for constipation?

What do you used for stopping/preventing diahorrea?

Is anyone using prune juice or pear juice for constipation?

Is anyone using yoghurt/drinking yoghurt and.or acidophillus bifidus tabs(sp?)

Any information would be a help. I have to finalise our protocols and you would be amazed at what you cannot reference. :)

[passing thru]

Back to my first rate-first class hospitals............

Isn't this an issue that should be addressed by the doctors from day one?

Is there a place where every doc and nurse can look to see when the last b.m. was?

If not, why not?

Lots of constipation admits where I work now. "Abdominal Pain."

Is it a $$ issue....?

After 3-4 days of hospitalization and cat scans of tummy, etc., then the old "clean 'em out" routine is done and they poop 30 gallons, feel great , have their EGD, AND colonoscopy and go home.

[gwenith, BSN, RN]

Bowel protocols ideally are to prevent constipation but if sources such as the cochrane database for evidence based practice cannot agree on the definition of constipation it leaves the situation up to experiienced persons come to consensus derived from practice wisdom.

[WhiteCaps]

Prune juice seems to work best when it is warm!

Try giving it a spin in the microwave for 30-60 seconds (depending on your microwave). I think it works best

when it is almost coffee temp. But, very important to

warn the pt it is hot & be sure to minimize the burn risk

since they don't expect juice to be hot!

[ktwlpn, LPN]

Originally posted by angelbear

I know this sounds strange but this is a topic of interrest to me. At our facility BM's are a big deal. Our population is mostly total care(profound mental retardation). A good portion of our residents recieve miralax on a regular basis. From what we the lowly nurses have read this is not good. Miralax is meant to be for short term constipation. We go round and round about all this at work. Any thoughts?

Miralax has been a savior for our late stage dementia people-it's as good as a stick of dynamite and much more comfortable.2 of our docs are very fond of sorbitol-nasty stuff and seems to cause a great deal of GI upset...Lots of fluids(8 oz with each med pass-3 nourishment rounds with another 8 oz plus the liquids with meals makes a great difference on our unit-and very seldom do we see UTI's-but when we do we get them in 3's (oh-that's another thread) Most important is to know each resident's bowel habits- not everyone poops daily or every 3 days----we have 3 that go 4 to 5 days and then evacuate without intervention(big uns,too-whooeee)

[adrienurse, LPN]

I kind of like using microlax enemas for the LTC demented. Usually work right away, for a nice formed BM (no diarrhea for the rest of the am), much less traumatic than giving D&G supps (you're in -- you're out), doesn't seem to result in stomach cramps for a lot of people too.