Effectiveness of Self-care Education on Patients with Stomas

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of self-care education on knowledge and self-care agency of patients with colostomies and ileostomies. Methods: This intervention study was carried out with 64 stoma patients 32 of whom were intervention group and 32 of whom were control group at one university research hospital and two state hospitals at Eskisehir in Turkey. After stoma surgery, planned self-care education was given to intervention group, and control group had routine service care. After surgery, personal data collection form and Self-Care Agency Scale (SCAS) were filled by both intervention and control groups at 1 and 3 weeks later. Results: It was found that self-care agency scores increased in both intervention and control groups 3 weeks later and the increasing extent in the intervention group was higher than the control group(p<0.001). Also there was found a positive correlation between self-care agency and stoma knowledge scores (r=0.466, p<0.01) of intervention group. Education may assist on self-care agency and stoma knowledge of patients with stoma. Practice Implications: Education has an important part in development of self-care agency, independence and adaptation of the individuals to the diseases. By the way self-care is an important part for the adaptation of patients with stomas after surgery so that planned self-care education should be given to patients before their discharge.