Preventing faecal incontinence in patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders

Nurses assist patients with activities of daily living, including the provision of excretion care. Although excretion may be accomplished by some patients independently, others exhibit disorders in this process. Despite the high prevalence of faecal incontinence, the proper nursing care protocol in this context remains unclear. Therefore, this narrative review was conducted to investigate what types of nursing care are needed to prevent or improve faecal incontinence through a review of existing knowledge, challenges and future prospects. The PubMed, Zentralblatt für die gesammte Medizin and Ichushi Web databases were searched to identify relevant articles, most of which were published in English. There were no restrictions on search criteria regarding the publication date, sample size, study design and age of the patients. The results indicated that nurses should focus on the daily lives of patients by providing dietary and lifestyle advice, skin care, bowel habit instructions and pelvic floor muscle training to help prevent faecal incontinence or improve symptoms.