Nursing Interventions to Promote Normal Bowel Elimination

1. Nursing Interventions to Promote Normal Bowel Elimination Heather Nelson, RN

2. Promoting Regular Defecation • The nurse can help the patient achieve regular defecation by attending to: • Privacy • Timing • Nutrition and fluids • Exercise • Positioning

3. Privacy • The nurse should provide as much privacy as possible to patients to whom privacy during defecation is important. • Provide patient with water, washcloth, or towel if the patient desires to clean himself after defecating.

4. Timing • Patients should be encouraged to defecate when the urge to defecate is recognized. • Provide time for the patient to defecate. Do not interfere with defecation time with other activities. • Do not hurry patients. Give patients adequate time to defecate.

5. Nutrition and Fluids • The diet a patient needs for regular defecation varies.

6. Nutrition and Fluids • For constipated patients: • Increase fluid intake. Instruct the patient to drink fruit juices, especially prune juice. • Include fiber in the diet with foods such as prunes, raw fruit, bran products, and whole-grain cereals and bread.

7. Nutrition and Fluids • For patients with diarrhea: • Encourage intake of fluids and food. • Eating small amounts of bland foods can be helpful, since they are more easily absorbed. • Encourage the ingestion of food or fluids containing potassium, since diarrhea can lead to great potassium losses. • Avoid excessively hot or cold fluids and highly spiced foods and high fiber foods that can aggravate diarrhea.

8. Exercise • Regular exercise helps clients develop a regular defecation pattern and normal feces. • Ambulation helps to stimulate normal motility, and therefore should be encouraged in post-surgical patients.

9. Positioning • Patients who are confined to bed may need assistance to sit on a bedpan. • Assist patients to the bedside commode or toilet if needed. • Use elevated toilet seats to help patients who have difficulty in raising themselves from the toilet. • Make sure that the patient has the call light accessible so he or she can call for assistance.