HCA study day: long-term bowel management

Abstract

Teams of healthcare assistants (HCAs) supply most of the day-to-day care needs of spinal cord injury patients within their own homes, including establishing and maintaining a long-term bowel management regime. There can also be similar care needs for continuing healthcare patients (e.g. motor neurone, multiple sclerosis, stroke patients) when HCAs will work as part of a district nursing team providing bowel management care. A training need was identified for staff to secure competencies in Digital Rectal Examination (DRE) and Manual Evacuation of Faeces (MEF) as well as basic bowel and peri-anal assessment. One area which was highlighted as an urgent training need was the recognition and identification of the life-threatening emergency condition of autonomic dysreflexia, which only affects spinal cord injury patients.