Murdoch Bowel Protocol published in the US

11 Jun 2019

12 June 2019

Nurse Researcher Dr Gail Ross-Adjie said she was contacted by Kaiser-Permanente Hospital in Orange County California to use her evidence based bowel protocol, known as the Murdoch Bowel Protocol, developed as part of her PhD.

The protocol will be used at their hospital, which Gail says is a huge validation of work being undertaken at St john of God Murdoch Hospital.

“This protocol was developed to provide evidence-based bowel management after total hip and total knee replacements as this group have high levels of bowel dysfunction after surgery,” she said.

“The Murdoch Bowel Protocol Study was developed in 2011 and evaluated for my PhD.

“Patients who undergo total hip and total knee replacement surgery are at very high risk of developing severe constipation and the protocol was developed in response to this.

“The protocol was found to be highly successful in preventing severe constipation post-operatively in this group and was mandated for use on all of this patient group across all of our surgical divisions.

“To be asked by such a high profile and highly respected hospital like Kaiser Permanente to use this was validation that not only are we undertaking really robust research here at Murdoch but that it is being seen and acknowledged as such by our international peers.”

The protocol was also published in the International Journal of Orthopaedic and Trauma Nursing and is currently being revised in a new study to reflect our reduced inpatient stay times for this cohort.