Abstract
Introduction
In the past, children with constipation or encopresis were mainly seen in the paediatric outpatient department by paediatricians and would then be referred on to the psychology service. Since the introduction of the constipation clinics, paediatricians now either refer to the nurse led constipation clinic or to the psychology service or both. In this route, the nurses who run the constipation clinic frequently seek advice and input from the psychology service. It was therefore decided that if the nurses felt a patient would benefit from psychology, they would be seen in a joint clinic (nurses and psychology). In this way we have cut down significantly on both time and the amount of outpatient appointments for patients. We then designed an integrated care pathway (ICP) to prevent duplicating paperwork.
ICP Document
The full ICP document may be viewed at www.rsmpress.co.uk/icp_gardner.pdf. Permission is granted for you to read this text only. No part of the ICP may be copied without prior permission from the author.