[Constipation in the hospital. Ethical reflection on its care by the nursing staff].

The intestinal elimination of the hospitalized patients is a function insufficiently taken into account by the nursing staff from a preventive point of view. Nevertheless, numerous patients present transit disorders which are mostly translated into a diagnosis of constipation requiring therapeutic prescriptions and sometimes even aggressive and expensive medical examinations. The objective of this work is to lead an ethical reflection on the care of intestinal elimination by the nursing staff.