Clinical effect of individualized staged holistic nursing in spinal cord injury patients with neurogenic bowel dysfunction

Abstract

AIM: To assess the clinical effect of individualized staged holistic nursing in spinal cord injury (SCI) patients with neurogenic bowel dysfunction. METHODS: Eighty SCI patients with neurogenic bowel dysfunction were randomly divided into either an experimental or a control group. The control group was given routine nursing care, while the experimental group was given individualized staged holistic nursing. Bowel function and the quality of life were compared between the two groups in different stages, including before treatment, acute phase, rehabilitation phase, and follow-up phase. RESULTS: In different stages, the bowel function was improved in varying degrees in the two groups. The improvement was more signifcant in the experimental group than in the control group in the acute phase, rehabilitation phase, and follow-up phase (all P < 0.05). In the follow-up phase, the bowel function had a downward trend in the control group. The scores of quality of life were improved in varying degrees in the two groups; however, in the acute phase and rehabilitation phase, the experimental group was significantly better than the control group in terms of total score of life quality and scores for each of the domains of physiology, psychology, and environment (all P < 0.05), although there was no signifcant difference in the score for the social domain (P > 0.05). In the follow-up phase, the experimental group was signifcantly better than the control group with regard to total score of life quality and scores for each of the domains of physiology, psychology, society, and environment (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Individualized staged holistic nursing can help improve bowel function and quality of life in SCI patients with neurogenic bowel dysfunction. © 2013 Baishideng Publishing Group Co., Limited. All rights reserved.