A full cystectomy is the surgical removal of the bladder. This is done to treat muscle invasive bladder cancer. An ileal conduit urinary diversion is the method most commonly used for treating bladder cancer (Ping Han and Qiang Wei, 2007). An ileal conduit is where a tube is made using a piece of the ileum. This tube runs from the kidneys to a surgical opening in the abdomen. This opening allows urine to drain into a stoma that is located on the abdominal wall (Dougherty and Lister, 2008). This surgery is life changing and highly distressing for patients. Nurses must meet the psychological, educational and physical needs of patients undergoing this surgery in order to help them cope with such a life-changing event and help improve their quality …show more content…
Patients also worry about their sexual relationship. Patients fear they will be rejected by their sexual partner (Turnbull, 2001). It is the role of nurses to refer these patients onto sexual counselling. Sexual counselling is very beneficial to patients according to the NHS (2016) because it provides a safe and regular space for patients to talk about and explore their feelings. Unfortunately, the benefits of sexual counselling are not felt as much as they should be. This is because the mean age of patients who have undergone a full cystectomy and ileal conduit urinary diversion is 68. For this reason, sexual counselling is often overlooked (Turnbull, 2001). Nurses should never overlook sexual counselling as it promotes patient’s acceptance of their stoma. This, in turn, helps patients cope better psychologically. Despite the NHS reporting the benefits of sexual counselling, a study conducted by Persson and Hellstrom (2002) found sexual counselling to be of no benefit to patients. The small sample size that took part in this study felt sexual counselling did not make them feel any more sexually attractive. More studies with bigger sample sizes have to be conducted in order to get a better representation of patient’s sexual relationships post-operatively (Hackshaw,