Burping an Ostomy Bag (Nursing)

00:04 So we just talked about emptying an ostomy bag, now let's take a look at why do you burp an ostomy bag? You may think okay what are you talking about burping an ostomy bag but let's take a look at that, now while we're talking about this really just remember that ostomy bag is coming or that stoma is coming from our digestive tract so just as expected there can be some gas that escapes from the stoma into the bag so what that's going to look like is like a ballooning or inflation of that device so just know that some bags have filters here to help address it but some don't so just keep that in mind. Now guys I want to talk a minute about this so as a nurse if you're sensitive to smells, I'm just going to be frank here that sometimes this can really put out a foul smelling odor so as a nurse if you're going to address a patient be aware of yourself and know this so a great tip here is maybe that you put some sort of lotion or something scented underneath your nose before you enter the room, it's important for us when we're caring for these patients to maintain professionalism as much as possible. Now let's take a look how do we actually burp the ostomy bag? Now it's important to grab the tail of the pouch and really just kind of hold on to that and open up that velcro closure or the clamp itself now sometimes those clamps get lost, make sure you don't lose that, now we want to hold the top of the pouch with one hand and then we want to take the other hand and push the gas out by really just sliding your thumb and your finger from top to bottom. Now once we've done this we want to secure the velcro closure or the clamp as, as we talked about above now once we're done with this we can wash our hands and remove our gloves.

01:58 Now I'd like to show you how to burp the ostomy bag, so just for comparison here on my mannequin I've got one without gas it's nice and flat but as you can see here on the table I've got one that gas is collected and it's ballooned, sometimes you can even see this through a patient's gown so let me show you how to burp that so when we start, don't forget to hold the end here of the pouch then we're going to remove the clamp itself now again your clamps going to vary, it could be the velcro or this clamp, sometimes they're a little hard to get off so now I've removed my clamp, it's important to hold the pouch up so contents don't spill over then I'm going to take my other hand and push out the gas.

02:46 So now that we've burped the bag now I want to make sure to reapply my clamp, so everybody's a little bit different how we do this, so some people may fold but honestly if you notice if you fold too much we're getting too much into the bag. These closures rely on them, they're actually really good the clamps so usually I'll just apply my clamp and then make sure it's clamped down see how that pinches it, it does a really nice job of making sure the contents are enclosed. The other thing to remember, again anytime you burp an ostomy bag this is a time that could have a really foul odor coming from this so as a nurse please make sure you're sensitive to this and just know that before going in with your patient. So a good idea again is maybe put some scented lotion under your nose or something like that but again it's important to maintain professionalism so your patient can be comfortable and now don't forget before you leave make sure you remove your gloves and wash your hands.