PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF SMALL BOWEL OBSTRUCTION AND NURSING INTERVENTIONS Essay

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF SMALL BOWEL OBSTRUCTION AND NURSING INTERVENTIONS APPLIED TO NURSING PRACTICE - Essay Example The consequence is failure of the materials in the intestines to move outside the body for secretion. This means that materials such as stool, waste fluids, and gases accumulate in the intestines and often lead to critical health condition as the buildup strains the small intestines. This identifies the role of nursing in ensuring a healthy society at individual, family, and communal levels through awareness for preventive measures and treatment and post treatment initiative for effective recovery from effects of small bowel obstruction. Nursing roles include care provision, educating the public on preventive and management measures against diseases and their symptoms, counseling, and clinical approaches towards a healthy society. This scope demands nurses’ knowledge of health complications such as causes, symptoms, effects, diagnosis, and treatment measures. This paper demonstrate background knowledge of small bowel obstruction through reviewing irritable bowel syndrome, its anatomy and physiology, its epidemiology and laboratory tests and diagnostics for excluding other conditions, its emotional effects on patients, interventions measures, and significance of these information nursing practice. Anatomy and physiology of irritable bowel syndrome Irritable bowel syndrome is characterized by pain and change in bowel movements because of abnormal muscle contraction and expansion. It is majorly associated with the large intestines but extends to the small intestines. The large intestines form the last section of the digestive system and forms about six feet. It is also called the large bowel and is made up of the cecum, â€Å"colon, rectum, and anus† (Canadian Cancer Society, 2013, p. 1). Colon and rectum are the major sections of the large bowel. There are four sections of the colon. The first section is the ascending colon that enjoins the cecum and moves upwards towards the leaver where it connects to the transverse colon that runs horizontally to wards the spleen. The transverse colon is located at the upper section of the abdomen and joins with the descending colon that runs downwards, on the left side of the abdomen, and connects to the sigmoid colon. The sigmoid colon connects to the rectum that ends the lower bowel at the anal canal (Allen and Harper, 2011; Canadian Cancer Society, 2013). The major sections of the lower bowel, the â€Å"colon, and rectum† have similar structural composition that is identified from their component tissues. The inner most layer of the rectum and the colon is the mucosa that consists of â€Å"epithelium,† â€Å"lamina propria,† and â€Å"muscularis mucosa† (Canadian Cancer Society, 2013, p. 1). The propria is an integrating tissue while the muscularis mucosa is rich in muscles. After the mucosa in a layer of submucosa that is rich in â€Å"connective tissues, glands, blood vessels, lymphatic vessels, and nerves† (Canadian Cancer Society, 2013, p. 1). A lay er of muscles follows this before the outer layer that exist only in the colon, serosa (Canadian Cancer Society, 2013). Both colon and rectum absorbs nutrients from digested food into the body. They also absorb water and offer a passage for elimination of waste products. This however occurs in steps and at different sections of the colon and the rectum. Digestion of food from the small bowel is completed in the colon with the