Abstract

Bowel movements can be a difficult subject to discuss both as a patient and as a professional. A way to decrease the effects of post-operative constipation is to have a dialogue with the patient about their normal defecation pattern while conducting the initial intake interview. To develop a guideline for a structured dialogue between any professional and an adolescent patient about their defecation pattern. This is done with the private nature of this subject in mind. Focusing on what the adolescent patient experiences as significant in the communication and focusing on what information is necessary to help reduce the number of days before the patient’s first post-operative defecation occurs. The structured dialogue was tested in a study of 5 patients that had received operations for Idiopathic Scoliosis. Those patients will be compared to 11 other patients who were not involved in this study. The feedback from the 5 patients will be collected by the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire has a qualitative and quantitative approach. The questionnaires have shown that the study patients feel comfortable talking with professionals about this subject when the structured dialogue is used. Since the increased focus and when utilizing the structured dialogues, the number of days before the first post-operative defecation has been reduced by 22.8%. By structuring the intake interview, it has resulted in a positive effect and made the dialogue more comfortable for the patient. An increased focus has also proven to reduce the number of days between surgery and their first post-operative defecation.