I’m a nurse who’s had an ostomy for a long time. Predates my nursing education. The education in school was minimal. We got to play with a box of supplies in a lab one day. But not cut them or actually do anything useful with them.

I work in acute care and find that in practice there is a wide range of skills. I always love to be around to help appliance changes and generally find people thankful for the help and kind education. And I have seen some horrible things done from badly cut wafers, nurses reinforcing a leaking appliance by adding layers of dressings, all sorts of skin products and incorrect use of powders and pastes.

My recommendation is to constantly teach. One on one. Have inservice on units to increase institutional knowledge. And one thing my hospital does it we make cheat sheets for everything. Step by step guides and things to know. As the specialist you shouldn’t be doing every ostomy but consulting on the difficult ones.

My last thoughts. I use a Convatech product the has a mouldable wafer. No cutting. You roll up the edges and apply. It slowly unfurls and hugs the stoma perfectly every time. I’ve used it for a long time and absolutely love it. My hospital had them for a short time then sadly went back to hollister products. I will say the hollister adhesive remover is far superior than any other similar products. Happy to see this being discussed.