Who and where are specialist nurses in enterostomal therapy in Brazil?

Maria Angela Boccara De Paula,Vera Lúcia Conceição De Gouveia Santos,Suzana Lopes Salgado Ribeiro

doi:10.30886/estima.v17.820_in

Maria Angela Boccara De Paula, Vera Lúcia Conceição De Gouveia Santos + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.30886/estima.v17.820_in

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Abstract

Objective: To characterize the educational and professional profile of the Brazilian enterostomal therapist nurses with a view to assessing the scope of the specialty in the present and to map the professional practice in the specialty. Method: It is an exploratory and descriptive study with a quantitative approach conducted during 2016, carried out with 548 nurses, graduates, specialized in the area of enterostomal therapy. Data were collected by questionnaires and organized in the software Microsoft Excel®, presented in absolute numbers and percent in the form of graphs and tables. Results: The data point to growth pathways of enterostomal therapy education programs, their dissemination in the country’s regions and expansion of the number of graduates, as well as the predominance of the Southeast region for the formation and performance of the enterostomal therapist nurses. As for the areas of professional practice, there is a greater concentration of professionals in the care of people with wounds and in the care area. Conclusion: Most Brazilian enterostomal therapists have been working in the area for less than 10 years, especially in the care area, predominantly in the care of people with injuries. One of the concerns pointed out by the study refers to the need for the specialist to act and disclose the other areas of the specialty – ostomy and incontinence.

Highlights

Enterostomal therapy, a nursing specialty, had its origins in Cleveland, United States of America, in the 1950s
The data collected shows this reality, since the history of the specialty began in the Southeast and, for ten years, São Paulo was the only state to have an educational course in the area, so that the enterostomal therapists were concentrated in this region
In terms of the ratio of graduates in enterostomal therapy by educational institution in the Southeast region, of the 548 (100%) respondents, 373 (68.1%) enterostomal therapists graduated from 14 institutions in the Southeast region, of which the three main educational units were: Universidade de São Paulo (USP) (100, 26.8%), Universidade de Taubaté (Unitau) (72, 19.3%) and Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) (50, 13.4%), which represent 59.5% of the formation in the Southeast and 40.5% of the training in Brazil

Summary

Introduction

Enterostomal therapy, a nursing specialty, had its origins in Cleveland, United States of America, in the 1950s. Its history is connected to the development of surgical techniques, especially the improvement of the confection of intestinal stomata by Dr Rupert Turnbull. This doctor invited Norma Gill, his patient with ileostomy, to help guiding other patients on self-care after the making of a stoma[1,2,3]. The 1960s were important for the area, since in 1961 the first educational program about the care of people with stoma, offered to health professionals and patients, began in the USA; and in 1968 the first professional organization congregating enterostomal therapists, in the USA, emerged. In 1978, with greater spread of enterostomal therapy, mainly exercised by nurses, the international organization named World Council of Enterostomal Therapists (WCET) was created, presided by Norma Gill[1,2,3]

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