LOGIC LOGIC 2019 Spring Vol 18 No 3 | Page 14

Community Stomal Therapy Nursing Counties Manukau Community STN team Community Stomal Therapy Nursing is governed by the Ministry of Health specifications. In Counties Manukau DHB, the Stomal therapy service provides specialised care to 710 people with stomas, with an FTE of 1.8 clinical specialist nurses. The service works closely with the inpatient settings within the DHB as patient’s transition from hospital to home. Our service covers all community settings, home, private care, schools, correctional facilities, GP practices and clinics. No two days are the same in the life of a Community Stomal Therapist! We cover the lifespan, from neonates through to centurions. People undergo stoma forming surgery for a number of reasons such as cancer, inflammatory conditions, congenital and trauma. With that, comes a raft of emotions, potential complications from the acute through to the long term stages and the effects on family and friends. People are active within Spring 2019 L.O.G.I.C the community service for the duration of their stomas, this maybe 3 months or lifelong. Once they are in the service, we take referrals from many sources such as patients, GP’s, specialists and district nurses. On a day to day basis, our service sees people in their homes and community clinics for on-going pouching solutions (people regularly start on one and change for any number of reasons), troubleshooting, assessing hydration and nutritional status, the stoma, output and peri-stomal skin conditions. We provide hernia prevention education, engaging back in to day to day activities such as exercise. Assess emotional status, coping and support systems and refer appropriately. Assess ADL’s and refer to appropriate health discipline. Another large aspect of our role is education for our colleagues, carers and anyone else directly involved with a person with a stoma. Our service provides onsite education as well as running 3 education days a year that are open to everyone. We write guidelines for patients and staff to use and distribute, such as dietary and district nurse home visiting guidelines. Photo on next page: Dawn Birchall (Left)- I have been working as a Registered Nurse for over 30 years since graduating in 1987. Having an interest in surgical nursing, I trained as Stomal Therapist in 1996. The bulk of my nursing career has been spent working in the community which I greatly enjoy. Emma Ludlow (Middle)- I have been a Stomal Therapist for 5 years, 3 of them with Counties. My background is surgical nursing, having worked at multiple hospitals across Auckland, South Australia and the Northern Territory. I get a lot of satisfaction working with patients and seeing them gain confidence and making their life 12