Nursing and caring professionals experience bottlenecks in the prevention and care of clients with (risk of) constipation. When performing their duties, they pay too little attention to constipation complaints of clients. Another bottleneck is that clients receive different advice from different professionals. A guideline on nursing and care activities can contribute to reducing these bottlenecks. This is shown by research by the Nivel.
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Nursing and caring professionals in all care sectors deal with clients with (risk of) constipation. It is known that long-term constipation in adults often leads to a poorer quality of life, stress, fewer social contacts and absenteeism due to illness.
Signaling constipation complaints too late
More than 40 percent of the nurse and caring professionals surveyed experience bottlenecks in the prevention of or care for constipation. The most frequently cited bottleneck is the failure or late identification of a client’s risk of constipation. Professionals in district nursing and nursing homes in particular indicate that they have little insight into the bowel habits of their clients.
Guideline for greater clarity
More than thirty percent of the professionals surveyed find the development of a guideline on constipation for nursing and caring professionals suitable for tackling the bottlenecks. Furthermore, the surveyed professionals recommend making clear cooperation agreements with doctors about the duties and responsibilities of clients with (risk of) constipation.
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