RÉSUMÉ
PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the distress of the patients with ostomy. METHODS: A descriptive research design was adopted for data collection and analysis. Six patients with ostomy participated in the study. The consent from the participants was obtained for ethical protection. Data were collected from July 31, 2009 to January 10, 2010 using in-depth interview technique. Krippendorff's content analysis method was utilized for data analysis. RESULTS: Eight categories and 26 themes were extracted from the data which illustrated the lived distress of the patients with ostomy. The categories were "do not have any freedom to eat whatever I wish to eat", "uncontrolled defecation", "have to live through tough situation", "keep stoma in suspense", "disgusting ostomy", "can not live with comfort", "easily take a pessimistic view", and "see how the wind blows in daily family life". CONCLUSION: Ostomates were affected by the distress of having an ostomy in their physical, psychological, social and spiritual life. Individualized and continued nursing education program has to be developed in hospital and community settings in order to improve the quality of life of the ostomates.