[The most frequent digestive disorders in the elderly]. / Los trastornos digestivos más frecuentes en las personas ancianas.

Aging is a stage with various changes and physiological modifications. It's a progressive, dynamic and irreversible process. Elderly people are beings fragile, multipathological, and polimedicated. 40 Of the world's population has indigestion. They are the most common digestive disorders: constipation, dysphagia, and dyspepsia, reaching levels of prevalence around the 25, 30 and 25 respectively. The main activity of the nursing professional lies in making a proper assessment of the patient and offer a health education regarding habits hygiene and dietetics, in order to reduce the intake of drugs and increase the quality of life of our elders. We should not forget that the family plays a fundamental role for the treatment of these disorders.

Endoscopy nurse as a patient care coordinator: the expanded role of the competent nurse in the gastroenterology setting.

Several methods are used to describe and evaluate competence profiles of registered nurses. A clinical ladder program based on P. Benner's (1984; P. Benner et al., 1996) competency framework has been used for 20 years in a Finnish university hospital; to ensure the nurses' strategic competencies and capability profiles, the Nurse Competence Scale (NCS) was developed for the self-assessment and the superiors' review purposes (R. Meretoja, H. Isoaho, & H. Leino-Kilpi, 2004; R. Meretoja, H. Leino-Kilpi, & A. M. Kaira, 2004). In the gastroenterological endoscopy unit, competent nurses' work role has been expanded to the proficient level. These nurses are working as patient care coordinators in multiprofessional groups. This expanded work role requires mastery of nursing care for the gastroenterological patients and also familiarity of the endoscopy processes and the clinical pathways. These endoscopy nurse coordinators' most important work role is the effective management of situations, and they are also remarkable resources as preceptors and mentors to less experienced nurses and nursing students. This article describes endoscopy nurse coordinators' expanded work role and competence profile in the frame of the clinical ladder program.

Women's colonic digestive health.

Digestive problems in women are common and sometimes debilitating. Twenty percent of women suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, 20% have constipation, and all American women will need screening for colon cancer, the number two cause of cancer death in women. This article reviews management of these disorders as well as lower gastrointestinal symptoms associated with menses, hysterectomy, fecal incontinence, and rectal bleeding.

Development of an outcome/variance tracking tool for sedation and non-surgical procedures.

A large academic cancer center devised a performance improvement plan for special procedures and sedation. A group of interdisciplinary professionals convened to address data collection, complications, and outcomes for non-surgical procedures and sedation. Administrative, medical, and nursing representatives from all areas in which these procedures are performed gathered to assess existing data and data collection methods and to develop an improvement plan. Gastroenterology, pulmonary, diagnostic imaging, intensive care, gynecology, genitourinary, hematology, and anesthesiology specialties were represented. The group was facilitated by staff from the institution's Office of Performance Improvement and co-chaired by an anesthesiologist and a pulmonary specialist. A representative from the Practice Outcomes Department was also an active participant. This article describes group process, design efforts, pilot testing, and analyses for this project. Pilot data are presented as well as a discussion of staff involvement.

[Skin care in digestive fistulae]. / Cuidados com a pele em fístulas digestivas.

The author approaches about historical aspects, concepts, etiology and treatment of digestive fistula. The skin care and drainage control are the basis of stomal therapy. So, the author discusses the specific nursing and ET care in this subject, including evaluation, procedures and resources.

Tools for patient education.

There are many pamphlets, brochures and educational videos available for use in patient teaching. This article is a listing of some of the many items available and where to obtain them.