Patient education for stoma patients

The distress of stoma creation coupled with the ubiquity of stomas renders stoma-related care and education an underserved orphan interest. Fortuitously, multiple educational resources exist to help empower patients to adapt to life with an ostomy, improve their quality of life, and reduce complications and readmissions. Patients and their home caregivers should be educated pre- and post-operatively to understand their stoma to improve their quality of life, decrease preventable complications, and decrease health system resource utilization. A variety of outpatient stoma support groups and internet resources provide a venue for ongoing educational support for the ostomate.