Establishment of a stoma care training program for nurses in Sri Lanka and evaluation of its effectiveness

Introduction

In June 2012, the Ministry of Health with the Department of Surgery of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo conducted the first certificate course in stoma therapy for nurses in Sri Lanka. We aim to evaluate the success of the course in enhancing the knowledge and skills of the participants.

Methods

We evaluated 15 domains of patient care in the 61 participants using a self-administered validated questionnaire administered before the onset and after completion of the course. Data were analysed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Results

Of the 61, 37 (60.6%) were females. The mean age was 31.5 (SD±5.5) years. All 15 domains of patient care had improved at the end of the program. The biggest increase was seen in staff confidence category. The 3 domains that had the biggest improvement were; confidence to select different appliances to suit different conditions (90% improvement in score), having material for proper patient teaching (88.6%) and confidence in educating patients (77.6%). There were no statistically significant correlation between age, gender or years in nursing and the improvement in any of the measured domains.

Conclusion

The program was successful in allowing the participants to function independently. It was conducted with local resource personnel and minimal cost.

The Sri Lanka Journal of Surgery 2015; 33(1): 4-8