Effects of WeChat online support system on continued nursing care for patients receiving enteral bladder augmentation

Abstract

Objective To establish a WeChat online system supporting continued nursing care for patients receiving enteral bladder augmentation and to evaluate its effects on continued nursing care for patients with neurogenic bladder in spinal cord injury who received enteral bladder augmentation. Methods Totally 60 patients with low-compliant neurogenic bladder in spinal cord injury who received enteral bladder augmentation and were discharged from Zhejiang Provincial People's Hospital between March 2016 and March 2018 were selected by convenient sampling, and divided into the observation group (n=30) and the control group (n=30) according to the random number table. Patients in the control group received conventional nursing care after discharge, while patients in the observation group received nursing care after discharge via the WeChat online support system. The follow-up duration was 3 months. Bladder self-management compliance, urinary catheter-associated complications, bladder function, quality of life and negative emotions at discharge and 3 months after discharge were compared between the two groups. Results The score of bladder self-management compliance, anxiety score, depression score, and scores of physical function, role function, emotional function and social function in quality of life in the observation group were better than those in the control group 3 months after discharge (P<0.05) ; the rates of urinary tract infection and urethral injury of the observation group were 3.3% and 6.7%, while those of the control group were 26.7% and 33.3%, respectively; the incidence rate of urinary catheter-associated complications of the observation group was lower than that of the control group (P<0.05) ; and the parameters of bladder function such as bladder volume, bladder compliance, residual urine volume and maximum detrusor pressure of the observation group were better than those of the control group (P<0.05) . Conclusions The WeChat online support system can improve patients' bladder self-management compliance, reduce the urinary catheter-associated complications, enable the recovery of bladder function, ameliorate their negative emotions, and improve their quality of life. Key words: Spinal cord injury; Neurogenic bladder; WeChat; Bladder augmentation; Continued nursing care