Gastrointestinal Nursing.pdf

Introduction 7the fact that nursing students may enter university with a very poor backgroundin the life sciences. However, we also acknowledge our failings as teachers. Inaddition, there will be many nurses working in gastroenterology who havenever been exposed to the appropriate level of teaching in the life sciencesbecause they trained prior to the nursing educational reforms of the 1990s.Structure, function and disorders of thegastrointestinal tractFor the above reasons, therefore, a significant proportion of this book isconcerned with the structure and function of the gastrointestinal tract and thedisorders which arise. The management of these disorders is described and,while we have tried to emphasise aspects of nursing where these are unique,our general approach has been to present medical, surgical and nursing managementwithout differentiation. As already stated, with the possible exceptionof nurses who want to find out more about the speciality, this book ismainly directed at those in the speciality. Even those outside the speciality willbe registered nurses and to list repeatedly aspects of nursing care which aregeneric to all patient groups would be unnecessary. This book is designed tofill gaps in the essential knowledge needed to nurse in this area; knowledgeand experience of nursing generally is assumed. Furthermore, nurses workas part of a multidisciplinary team and to specify their part is unrealistic,particularly when the boundaries between nursing, medicine and surgery arebeing blurred by advanced nursing practice.As far as possible, the chapters in Section 1 follow the pattern described inFigure 1.1.Essential aspects of gastroenterologyAfter an overview of the gastrointestinal tract, each chapter takes one regionof the tract and covers the anatomy and physiology, the range of disorderswith causes and then describes the management of the disorder includingmedical, surgical and nursing care.The chapters on the regions of the tract should all enable the reader to:• Describe the region of the tract in anatomical terms• Understand the physiological function of the region• Identify the main disorders, and• Relate the anatomy, physiology and disorders to nursing practice.Section 2 covers essential aspects of gastroenterology and these include diagnostictests, emergencies and pharmacology. Nurses are increasingly involvedin the diagnostic aspects of gastroenterology, specifically nurse endoscopists