Patient s Experiences of Caring for their Colostomy at Home

Research Article

Austin J Nurs Health Care. 2024; 11(1): 1091.

Patient’s Experiences of Caring for their Colostomy at Home

Hussain SM1*; Batool S2; Madhani F3; Shah AH4

1Department of Nursing, Post Graduate Collage of Nursing Islamabad, Pakistan

2Department of Nursing, University of Turku, Finland

3Department of Nursing, Brock University, Canada

4Department of Bone Merrow Transplant, Shifa collage of Nursing, Islamabad, Pakistan

*Corresponding author: Hussain SM Post graduate collage of nursing Islamabad, Pakistan, street 04, house 129, ameen town Rawalpindi Islamabad, Pakistan. Tel: 03365531096 Email: Safia.manzoor58@gmail.com

Received: January 29, 2024 Accepted: March 09, 2024 Published: March 16, 2024

Abstract

Background: Colostomy formation is an important but life changing modality for treating various colorectal morbidities which alter the patient’s physical, psychological and social aspects of life. The management of colostomy is a simple yet technical task.

Aim: The purpose of current study was to explore the experiences of patients about performing the colostomy self-care at home.

Design and Methods: In this qualitative descriptive study ten participants were recruited through purposive sampling technique. Semi-structured interview guide was used to collect the data for theme and categories.

Results: The overall theme of Access, Affordability and Adaptation, with four subsequent categories including, Assistance for stoma care, Stoma care practices, Restricted activities of daily living, and Patient’s needs and recommendations were revealed from data analysis.

The findings of the study revealed that lack of assistance, lack of teaching and training of colostomy self-care and as well as high cost and unavailability of stoma appliances at local pharmaceutical companies were triggering the patients’ adaptation with colostomy.

Conclusion: The findings of study have highlighted the needs and challenges of colostomy patients while performing the colostomy self-care at home. The study has elaborated various factors that were contributing to the long-term dependency of colostomy patients, and impeding the patients’ adaptation with colostomy. The findings informed the health care organizations about the need for development of educational programs and teaching guidelines for the colostomy patients to enable them to perform the colostomy self-care.

Keywords: Colostomy formation; Colostomy self-care; Patient’s experiences adaptation

Introduction

Among cancers, the colorectal cancer is a second leading cause of cancer-related deaths [57]. The prevalence and death rate of colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases is more profound in low and middle-income countries. Likewise, in Pakistan, colorectal cancer includes in the top ten cancers [2].The stoma formation is one of the treatment modalities to improve patients' quality of life by reducing the devastating effects of colon cancer. However, it has detrimental effects on patients' physical, psychological, social, and functional wellbeing [1,8,29,37]. All these effects make the stoma acceptance difficult and yield a feeble adaptation [4,6,35,37]. However, healthy self-care behaviors play a pivotal role in healthy adaptation [60].Extensive literature is available on the stoma's adverse effects and the importance of self-care in adapting to the stoma [1,35-37]. Although the literature is available exploring colostomy patients' experiences, there is a lack of such studies in Pakistan. The contribution of Pakistan in literature is limited to colostomy indications, complications, and stoma care services. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, no study had explored stoma self-management experiences in developing countries in order to identify the needs and challenges which the patient faces while managing their colostomy at home. Contrary to the western countries, there are no specialized colostomy education and training services in Pakistan to facilitate the patients in learning the practical stoma management skills. Furthermore, the technical skills of emptying and changing the bag are briefly explained to the family caregiver only at the time of discharge, which can be scanty for the adequate management of colostomy at home. Thus, the colostomy patients remain dependent on health care professionals for longer period of time and repeatedly present to the hospitals for the colostomy-care and management. The study aims to investigate the needs and challenges of patients managing their colostomy at home.

Design and Methods

Study Design and Setting

A descriptive qualitative study was conducted at two tertiary care hospitals in Islamabad (the capital city of Pakistan) with capacity of 300 and 550 beds respectively. The selected health care facilities provide services to patients with the diverse ethnic and socio-cultural backgrounds.

Sampling and Participants

In this study, a total of twelve participants were recruited using the purposive sampling technique. However, two participants were excluded from the study because of the inability to approach them physically, and participants were unable to follow the instructions for online interviews. Thus, the final data was collected from ten participants with the achievement of data saturation. The selection criteria were: Adult individuals (aged 18 years and above) with temporary/ permanent colostomy, who were taking care of their colostomy for at least four months at home and able to speak either Urdu or English.

Interview Guide and Data Collection

The data was collected from the participants using the semi-structured interview guide (Appendix A). The interview guide was comprised of open-ended questions with the intent to explore the participants’ experiences of colostomy self- care as well as their needs and challenges while performing their colostomy self-care at home. The interview guide was developed in both English and Urdu language and participants were provided with the choice to respond in a feasible language. However, all participants have recorded their responses in Urdu language. The spontaneous probing was done for further clarification of ambiguous concepts and field notes were also taken for recording non-verbal ques during the interviews. The interviews were audio recorded and were transcribed before the analysis.

Nine interviews were conducted face-to-face. One was audio recorded via phone call because of the infeasibility to physically approach the participant. Seven out of nine participants were interviewed at their home in a separate and quiet room. Moreover, the data from two participants were collected in the OPD of their respective hospitals when they come for routine follow-up with their physician. Each interview lasted between 35 to 45 minutes approximately.

Trustworthiness

The trustworthiness of the study was maintained through careful collection of the date with proper field notes and feedback from the research committee throughout the research process [30]. A transparent record of the whole research process from the start of the study until reporting the finding was maintained. Moreover, the interview transcript was cross-checked with audio-taped data. The researcher also keeps the reflexive journal to assess the influence of the personal perception on the research process and detailed description of the study setting, methodology, process, and context was provided to ensure the study's transferability.

Ethical Considerations

Ethical approval was obtained from the IRB (institutional review board) of selected hospitals (Appendix E). Voluntary participation in the research study was ensured by taking informed consent from the participants. In this study, codes (P1, P2, P3) were assigned to each participant to maintain the participants' anonymity. The safety and confidentiality of information collected were guaranteed by keeping the hard data under lock and key and soft copy in a password protected computer.

Data Analysis

The data collection and analysis were done simultaneously to identify the prime concepts during data collection [30]. The data were manually analyzed following qualitative content analysis, provided by Elo & Kyngäs, [20]. Furthermore, the inductive content analysis approach was used to analyze the data for both manifest and latent meanings. Firstly, open coding was done. Codes then put into subcategories based on their linkages and then relevant subcategories combine to form categories. The clinical data and socio-demographic characteristics of study participants were manually analyzed with Microsoft excel.

Results

Characterises of Study Participants

A total of ten participants were selected in the study. 50% of the participants were male and half of them were female. Most of them were in their young adulthood stage. Five participants had colorectal cancer, three of them had inflammatory bowel disease and two of them had obstructive disorders. With regards to the cause of the disease, eight of the participants had permanent a stoma formation, while two had temporary stoma formation. The duration of the stoma formation ranged from 4months to 6 years (Table 1).

Citation: Hussain SM, Batool S, Madhani F, Shah AH. Patients’ Experiences of Caring for their Colostomy at Home. Austin J Nurs Health Care. 2024; 11(1): 1091.