Confidence, skills and barriers to ostomy patient care by nursing staff in Saudi Arabia

AIM: This study examined the confidence level and perceived barriers to providing ostomy care among staff nurses in Saudi Arabia. BACKGROUND: Patients with ostomies experience increased comfort and satisfaction when nurses are confident in their knowledge and skills. DESIGN: A descriptive, cross‐sectional design was used to conduct the research. The study included a convenience sample of 214 staff nurses from five hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The researchers used a survey questionnaire to gauge participants’ confidence in their knowledge and skills, as well as identify any perceived barriers to ostomy care. RESULT: Overall, 95.1% of participants worked in adult care and 82.2% worked in surgical areas. There were significant relationships between the nurses’ confidence in their ostomy care knowledge and skills and their years of nursing experience and having received ostomy care training in nursing school (p < .05); however, the nurses’ level of education had no correlation (p > .05). CONCLUSION: While the majority of nurses were confident in their ability to care for patients with ostomies, they were concerned about causing stoma problems. This suggests that improving the quality of ostomy care provided by nurses may result in fewer negative outcomes for patients with ostomies.