Ileal Conduit Case Study

This writer’s aim in this assignment is to critically discuss the role of the nurse in caring for a patient who is undergoing a total cystectomy and ileal conduit urinary diversion. She will mainly focus her assignment on the psychological, educational and physical needs of the patient.
One of the treatments for bladder cancer can be a cystectomy, which is the removal of part or the entire bladder. After such surgery a urinary diversion needs to be put in place, Hautmann et al. (2007) suggest there are three distinct types of diversions
1. incontinent, cutaneous diversion (Ileal conduit); this is the most common procedure.
2. continent, cutaneous diversion (pouch); this is least common.
3. continent, urinary diversion to the intact native urethra (neo-bladder). This is relatively new and becoming more common.
Depending on the patient and the diagnosis, their urologist will suggest the most appropriate procedure. For the purpose of this assignment the writer will focus on the Ileal Conduit.
An Ileal Conduit is formed by taking a section of the bowel (ileum) from the small intestine and reconstructing it into a pouch with the open end brought to the
Black (2000) states physiological recovery is influenced depending on the circumstances for getting the stoma. Having a ileal conduit means that the patient will be continuously incontinent of urine and this may be psychologically hard for the patient to comprehend. Both the nursing staff and clinical nurse specialist are both there to support and educate the patient on how to cope with this. Education is one of the most important aspects to recovery. Dougherty et al. (2015) suggests that the patient be educated on foods such as beetroot, spinach or food dyes that may alter the appearance of the urine and similarly consuming fish or asparagus may give the urine strong odor. Other than this patients with an ileal conduit have no specific