We know work gets busy, and sometimes it’s hard to make every event. That’s why we’re here to ensure you don’t miss out on the incredible insights, ground-breaking discussions, and revolutionary advancements at Bladder & Bowel UK’s latest event!
Hot off the press – dive into our event highlights
Our panel discussion – Taking the Pain Away: Evolutionary Approaches to Comprehensive Support
Brigitte Collins, Global Clinical Education Manager, and Michelle Henderson, Clinical Education Manager, hosted our captivating chat show discussing their previous experiences working with patients and exploring research with our panel of professionals:
- Monica Lyons (BSc Hons), Advanced Clinical Practitioner at London Bridge Hospital
- Jessica Kydd-Coutts, Pelvic Health Physiotherapist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
- Nicola Tonks, Colorectal and Pelvic Nurse Consultant, Royal Shrewsbury Hospital.
During the session, Michelle highlighted that it can take patients 10 or more years to get started on rectal irrigation as a treatment (Henderson et al, 2022), which got the panel started off thinking about where rectal irrigation sits in the treatment pathway. We had an engaging debate around the merits of the stepped approach, using the very familiar treatment pyramid (Emmanuel et al, 2013) versus a more multi-modal approach, where several treatments might be tried at once.
Our expert panellists concluded that an individualised approach is important, bearing in mind the treatments that the patient might have already tried and the length of time it’s taken them to get to specialist services.
Brigitte led an interesting discussion around psychological readiness (Stephen Rollnick et al, 2023), which included fascinating insights from our panellists about knowing when patients are not ready to start rectal irrigation and the value of opening up conversations around barriers to irrigation by using visual analogue scales. Whilst this is a new area to explore in relation to rectal irrigation, we agreed on the value of such motivational interviewing techniques employed to empower the patient so that they are better supported to self-manage their chronic bowel symptoms.
We finished up by chatting about the frequency of follow-up and its importance in supporting the patient for successful irrigation. We had an interesting debate about whether or not we should discharge patients from our caseloads. A key finding from PERSPECTIVE is that effective irrigation at 3 months is a good indicator of effectiveness longer term, perhaps offering reassurance to patients and healthcare professionals alike that it’s okay to be discharged once established on successful irrigation.
This was a thought-provoking discussion; thank you to our expert panellists for joining us. Their knowledge and insights were positively received by the audience and gave us all lots of food for thought about how we move forward in supporting our patients in the future.
We caught up with our panellists after our session to hear how it went:
Click here to read more about the Perspective Study on Bladder & Bowel UK’s website.
The Art of Evolution – The Gallery
We launched The Art of Evolution as part of our journey to create a world where innovation and inclusive support for rectal irrigation come together.
We continue to develop our products to fit seamlessly into people’s lives – that means we’re listening. But talking about your bowels doesn’t come easy for people. So, we’re making access to bowel conversations easier for them. That way, they can start to understand if they need help.
For those using or teaching rectal irrigation, every day is different. So, we’re developing our education and support for patients and healthcare professionals. Irrigation works best with structured support at those important steps.
We invited delegates to view the gallery, where they could hear more about our patient stories and learn about the impact of rectal irrigation on their daily lives. We also explored the evolution of our products and services as we showcased our Red Dot award-winning products and our new personalised delivery service. Plus, we shared information about The Gut Hut and what it brings to patients.
Again, we would like to say a massive thank you to Bladder and Bowel UK for having us as Key Sponsors at their Midlands event. To everyone who visited us in The Gallery, attended our chat show, or stopped by our stand – seeing everyone and speaking about bowel care with you all was fantastic.
Refs:
Henderson M, et al (2022) Transanal Irrigation for the Management of Functional Bowel Disorders: An Observational Study. Int J Nurs Health Care Res 5: 1360. DOI: https://doi.org/10.29011/2688-9501.101360
Emmanuel AV, et al (2013) Consensus review of best practice of transanal irrigation in adults. Spinal Cord. 2013 Oct;51(10):732-8. doi: 10.1038/sc.2013.86. Epub 2013 Aug 20. PMID: 23958927.
Rollnick, S. (2022). Motivational Interviewing in Health Care: Helping Patients Change Behavior (Second Edition). S.L.: Guilford.
