The prevention and management of constipation in older adults in a residential aged care facility.

The need to implement programs for developing leadership and practice improvement skills using an evidence-based practice approach to practice change is becoming more apparent in the health and aged care services. This is no more apparent than in high care residential health and aged care services, where health professionals are increasingly required to provide care for older people with multifocal and complex healthcare needs. This paper describes one of the projects undertaken as part of the Joanna Briggs Institute Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing Clinical Aged Care Fellowship program from February 2005 to June 2005. This purpose of this particular project was twofold. First it sought to improve the local practice in the prevention and management of constipation and that this practice was performed according to the best available evidence. Second to use the Joanna Briggs Institute Practical Application of Clinical Guidance (PACES) program to implement a process of audit and feedback as a strategy to improve practice. The project was designed to link in with the facility's existing quality improvement program and better practice continence management project. The project was conducted over 6 months and was divided into six stages involving the identification of evidence-based standards of care, an initial audit to determine appropriate sample size, a clinical audit across the facility, planning of the implementation process, implementation of the action plan and re-audit to assess practice change. Overall, the results were extremely positive and demonstrated a real improvement in practice relating to constipation in the project facility. This success, however, needs to be seen in the context of the benefits of having the support of senior management, an existing quality improvement and continence management better practice project, and a culture of clinical review. Although there will always be more work to be done, the success of this project can be viewed in terms of the improvements gained and the long-term benefits for the facility and the organisation using the time-efficient audit and feedback strategy.