AB022. SOH21AS227. A review of the psychosocial experiences of patients living with stomas in the West of Ireland
Colorectal Session

AB022. SOH21AS227. A review of the psychosocial experiences of patients living with stomas in the West of Ireland

Katie St John1, Nicola Brown2, Ronan Waldron2, Iqbal Khan2, Kevin Barry2

1Department of Surgery, Tallaght University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland; 2Department of Surgery, Mayo University Hospital (MUH), Mayo, Ireland

Background: Having a stoma significantly impacts a patient’s lifestyle, both physically and psychologically. Peri-operative optimisation of coping strategies is of great importance in both elective and emergency cases. We aimed to examine the psychosocial

Methods: A survey was administered to patients with stomas who benefit from outpatient colorectal care in MUH. Patients were made aware of a local stoma support group and prior knowledge of this investigated. Respondents were asked to comment on whether community supports for stoma patients were adequate.

Results: Of respondents, 36 underwent stoma creation electively (ileostomy/colostomy) and 23 emergently. Seventy-five percent of elective patients and 65% of emergency patients were aware of the stoma support group. However, 47% of elective and 52% of emergency patients felt the West of Ireland was lacking in support structures for patients with stomas. The majority of patients were not put in touch with a mentor but felt they would have benefitted from same (75% of elective and 50% of emergency). The most frequently reported issue was a paucity of pre-operative information regarding living with a stoma (47% elective and 65% emergency).

Conclusions: In the West of Ireland, patients with stomas are generally coping well, but there is a consensus that supports available are currently inadequate and that perhaps patients would benefit from a mentoring programme peri-operatively to enhance coping strategies.

Keywords: Patient experience; psychosocial; stoma; support

Acknowledgments

Funding: None.

Footnote

Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.

Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

doi: 10.21037/map-21-ab022
Cite this abstract as: St John K, Brown N, Waldron R, Khan I, Barry K. SOH21AS227. A review of the psychosocial experiences of patients living with stomas in the West of Ireland. Mesentery Peritoneum 2021;5:AB022.

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