A tool that nurses can use to assess how well patients adjust psychologically after stoma surgery has been developed by UK nurse researchers Kingsley Simmons, of the University of

Hertfordshire’s school of nursing, has developed Ostomy Adjustment Inventory-23 – a scale to assess the effects of stoma on patients and how well they were coping. He said: ‘Many stoma

patients experience loneliness, depression, anxiety and sexual problems. ‘Up to now, there was no reliable scale to assess how well patients were coping,’ he added. Journal of Wound Ostomy

and Continence Nursing (2009) 36: 69–76