Management of Fecal Incontinence for the Advanced Practice Nurse

This second edition describes the management of fecal incontinence from an advanced practice nursing perspective using the latest and best available evidence. The book is written by a group of interdisciplinary, international experts on fecal incontinence.  Authors’ objectives are to disseminate information about evidenced-based nursing care for the incontinent patient to assist nurses to provide high quality care, reduce incontinence, and improve patients’ quality of life.

The book is structured in chapters whose content has been updated since the first edition. It addresses assessment and management of fecal incontinence in various patient groups, paralleling the delivery of care. Case studies are provided. Normal defecation and mechanisms to promote continence are explained to improve understanding of alterations resulting in fecal incontinence. The epidemiology of fecal incontinence is summarized to illustrate the scope of the problem. There is a chapter about the assessment and management of skin problems commonly associated with fecal incontinence with recommendations for assessing them on darky pigmented skin. New chapters about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on continence care, selection and use of absorbent products, and a horizon scan of technologies for managing fecal incontinence have been added. All chapters highlight key information in a box or table.

The intended readers are international advanced practice nurses who care for patients with incontinence and continence nurse specialists practicing at a general level. General nurses or nursing students interested in continence care might also be interested in the book. Readers from other healthcare disciplines can learn more about the role of the advanced practice nurse in continence care.

Professor Donna Z. Bliss is a Professor at the University of Minnesota (U of MN) School of Nursing in Minneapolis, MN, US. She is  a Horace T. Morse-U of MN Alumni Association Outstanding Teacher. She is the Emerita School of Nursing Foundation Professor in Nursing Research. Professor Bliss’ research focuses on assessing, preventing, and managing incontinence and incontinence associated skin damage. She has 25 years of research experience funded by federal, foundation, and corporate grants and more than 130 publications on these topics. She has presented numerous national and international presentations about her work. She teaches courses in the prelicensure and doctoral programs at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing and advises doctoral students.

Professor Bliss received her BSN from Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania and her Masters and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. She had an NIH-funded individual NRSA predoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania and an NRSA postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. She also completed a fellowship in postdoctoral in aging at the University of Minnesota. She started her clinical experience in critical care and trauma nursing.

Professor Bliss has been honored as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Gerontological Society of America, and most recently of the Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing Society. She held leadership positions with the International Continence Society (ICS) as chair of the ICS Nursing Committee for two terms and a member of the Standardization Steering Committee and Education Committee. She chaired the committee of 7th ICS-International Continence Consultation conducting the systematic review of the assessment and conservative management of fecal incontinence and related quality of life. She is the chair of the Abstract Committee of the Wound Ostomy Continence Nursing Society and was the Director of its Center for Clinical Investigation for ten years. She is a Board member and ambassador of the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research.  She is on the editorial boards of the journals Continence and Applied Nursing Research.  She served as an editor of the Incontinence section of Cochrane Reviews and was on the Steering Committee for the Priority setting for faecal incontinence research project.