Best practice in discharging patients with a stoma.

Pre-operative preparation and postoperative education are both essential elements for the recovery and successful discharge into the community of patients with a stoma. The ultimate goal of any stoma care nurse is to provide patients with the necessary practical skills and knowledge to return to a lifestyle they enjoyed before surgery (Abrahams, 1984). The basic pre- and postoperative planning that is required for patients who have had bowel surgery under elective conditions with a confirmed colorectal pathology, for example, rectal cancer or inflammatory bowel disease, is described below. Stomas include colostomy, ileostomy, jejunostomy and urostomy. They can either be end stomas (one segment of bowel is exteriorised), or loop stomas (two segments of bowel are exteriorised), and they may be permanent or temporary.