Assignment Task I: Do you ever have difficulty regulating your own bowel elimination? Answer these questions about how you treat problems with bowel elimination.
a. What causes you to have problems with bowel elimination? Foods? Illness? Stress? Inactivity?
b. What methods have you used to treat problems with bowel elimination? Diet? Medication?
c. How do you feel when problems with bowel elimination occur? What type of physical discomfort occurs? Emotional distress?
d. How do problems with bowel elimination affect your appetite? Sleep and rest? Energy level? Mood?
e. What effect does a problem with bowel elimination have on your life? How does it affect your participation in work and leisure activities?
f. How can you relate your personal experience to the feelings and concerns of a client you are caring for who has problems with bowel elimination?
Assignment Task II: Put yourself in their position of a client who has an ileostomy or a colostomy and answer the following questions:
a. What problems has the client experienced in learning to live with the ostomy? How have friends, family, and others reacted to knowing the client has an ostomy?
b. What has been the hardest adjustment? What has been the easiest?
c. What type of pouch is being used? What other types were tried? What are the advantages of the type being used?
d. How much time is required each day to care for the ostomy? What is the client's schedule to care for the ostomy?
e. How expensive is the equipment used?
f. What leisure activities does the client have? Did the client have to change or give up any activities due to the ostomy? What changes occurred in the client's body image?