This week we’re really pleased to hear about the purchase of a new training model – the Otto Ostomy – to better support patients with stomas, and the staff caring for them.
Funded by charitable donations, Otto is a new, interactive way for staff and patients to learn more about stomas and the process of stoma care.
For those that don’t know, a stoma is an opening in your tummy that allows waste to exit your body, rather than going through your digestive system. They’re used when part of your bowels or bladder either need to heal or be removed. It’s estimated that 1 in 335 people in the UK are currently living with a stoma.
The stoma care team, led by Karen Pollington (pictured), cares for around 1,300 patients within the Milton Keynes area with a stoma. This includes adults, babies and young children. They look after patients while they are in hospital and follow them up after discharge with home visits, nurse led clinics, or both.
A large part of their job is teaching staff within the wider MKUH setting on how to confidently and competently carry out stoma care; ensuring our patients are receiving high quality emotional and physical support with either a new stoma or with any issues they have moving forward.
Karen and the stoma team teach nursing staff, medical staff, dieticians, physiotherapists, school/nursery teaching/support staff and all the care agencies in the Milton Keynes area.
Karen says: “We contacted the charity team as our current training model was very basic and very old (over 20 years!) We very much felt that a more interactive model would encourage engagement with our teaching and enhance our theoretical training. It’s also a much nicer and interactive way to talk about stoma care with patients too. Thank you so much for this brilliant support!”
