Hospital enemas on whose orders?

At age 4/5 I was in St Joe's Hospital in Billings MT with polio. An eleven week stay in 1950. After a brief stay in isolation I was put in a children's ward with maybe six to eight beds. Long story short, I was the only one that got an enema every other day. I saw the enema trolly occasionally pushed to another kid's bed, but not often. The regular nurses gave enemas the same way. One day an older nurse (sub?) was on duty and used a colon tube. Just a different experience. Twice, my bed was wheeled to the middle of the ward and different young nurses (trainees?) surrounded my bed. At the foot of the bed was an older nurse with the trolly and enema can. While she administered my enema, I was being encouraged by the young nurses to “breath through your mouth” “pant like a puppy” and “just a little more”. Now, after all these years, I wonder who ordered all those enemas? I suspect a doctor, as Mom continued frequent enemas for as long as I was bedridden, about a year. I was a very compliant enema taker. Is that why I was chosen to demonstrate enema procedures to new nurses, and was the demonstration for a regular pediatric enema or a 3H enema. I never had to have encouragement during my regular enemas. Can anyone clue me in?

That is some experience… hope you are okay now!! I can remember that fear of getting polio every summer like it was tomorrow as well as remembering waiting in the school yard for my first polio vaccination.

I was in Hospital several times as a child and teen and the nurses would usually tell me “Doctor has ordered an enema for you”. The nurses would then come to my bedside with a trolley and enema gear and tell me to lay on my side and they would part my Hospital gown at the back and give the enema.

I had cleansing enemas prior to a v BBC around enema in my youth and assume that was SOP from the doctor.

I just got out of the hospital and was constipated for three days after surgery. They gave me a suppository, Miralax, and a stool softener which finally worked but I would just preferred an enema.

When my tonsils were removed at about age six, I, and everyone else in the ward scheduled for a procedure the next day were given enemas. It was a Catholic hospital and the enemas were given by nursing nuns. I assume it was standard operating procedure rather than specific doctor's orders. Everyone I have spoken to from my generation about having tonsils out has almost the same story regarding pre-op enemas.

White enamel cans, red tubing, and black nozzles. Both boys and girls were on the ward and the curtains were only drawn around the bed sides, leaving the foot facing the aisle wide open.

Before leaving the hospital for the night and to the ministrations of the nuns, my mother told me to be good for the sisters, do what they tell me and i would get ice cream the next day. Harrumph! It was only a small dish of sherbet!

When I had my tonsils removed I was about 5 years old. It was about 1951. I do not know who ordered the enema, but a nurse gave me my enema the night before my operation. She used an enema can.

I haven’t, but my wife was in the hospital for minor surgery and the nurse showed up with an enema…Dr’s orders. It was one of the green and clear bags with the milky white soap. She filled it to the absolute max volume. My wife, who hates enemas, was NOT pleased, but I certainly enjoyed the show.

Most of the stories told here about hospital enemas in the 50's are true. I was in a children's ward consisting of 8 occupied beds of both girls and boys ages 5 to 9. There were no dividers, no curtains, no privacy. It was a brightly lit room with large pane windows open directly to the hospital corridor for all to see. Two teams of nurses- 3 nurses to a team- administered the enemas going from bed to bed. One nurse managed the enema-stand and would add a green liquid soap that she squeezed out of a squeeze bottle; the lead nurse managed the hose, clamp and nozzle; and the third nurse held-down our legs firmly to the mattress as we lay on our tummies with our bare bottoms exposed to all during our enemas. There was much complaining, whining and crying. We were told to “pant….pant like a puppy” over and over. I believe many of us have been compelled to come to this website driven by the imprinting of these memories….. michael https://en.zity.biz/gallery/image/16551

I was in the hospital for 6 days after an appendectomy at age 16. My appendix had burst and I was loaded with antibiotics.

Food had been withheld and I was on liquids and eventually a soft diet. The nurses indicated I had to have a BM before I could eat a regular meal or be discharged.

My mom carried on about my extended stay and kept insisting they just give me an enema. Finally, the doctor ordered an enema and I was discharged later in the day.

I got more enemas at home. I wasn't sure if the enemas had been ordered by my mom or the doctor. The nurse who gave me the enema was the actor in many subsequent wet dreams.

In the past, the doctor who ordered the enemas, but in today's hierarchy I imagine it can also be a nurse practitioner or a physicians assistant.

It's the nurse's role to carry out orders, whether they be for an enema or other treatments, but when I was receiving home nursing after being hospitalized, my doctor gave the nurse discretion on when she would give the enema(s). I learned the initials PRN, which allowed Angie to use her judgment when to give enemas "as needed," which she did because my insides were terribly blocked up at the time.

@wkobit There were no dividers, no curtains, no privacy. It was a brightly lit room with large pane windows open directly to the hospital corridor for all to see. Two teams of nurses- 3 nurses to a team- administered the enemas going from bed to bed. One nurse managed the enema-stand and would add a green liquid soap that she squeezed out of a squeeze bottle; the lead nurse managed the hose, clamp and nozzle; and the third nurse held-down our legs firmly to the mattress as we lay on our tummies with our bare bottoms exposed to all during our enemas.

Wow amazing experience and great picture!

@Vicki_V

I've been in hospital a number of times in recent years and detect the customary daily doses of Colage, so am well familiar with the issue.

Simply put, a doctor has to order all large volume enemas. Period. Sometimes, nurses are allowed to order Fleet Enemas or Dulcolax suppositories, if a patient hasn't pood in a while but I'm not sure about this. I really don't want to be given either.

If you want bag enemas to help you poo, talk with the doctor responsible for your care. Tell them in no uncertain terms you don't want laxatives, stool softeners, or Fleets. Insist on large volume, warm water enemas as needed. They then should add warm water enemas PRN to your chart. Once it's on the orders, you simply ask the nurse, and you'll get the enema.

When I've been in hospital, confined to bed and required to poo in a bedpan, I always go the enema route. Yes, expelling a large volume enema in a bedpan can be messy, but a bagfull of warm water makes having a full and complete poo on a bedpan certain.

I think it has to be a doctor's orders or possibly a nurse practioner. Any nurse would have to clear it with the doctor even if the patient asked. They call the doctors at least every day, so it would get approved if you asked for it in most instances.

Usually it was the doctor but in our small community hospital I recall that a Registered Nurse could make that call as to enema administration when she made the ‘ rounds ‘ if the patient indicated a constipation issue or , more obviously , when surgery was pending . This was in the 1950’s .

When I had home nursing in 1984 after being in the hospital, Angie was an RN, but she still contacted my doctor who approved orders to give me enemas PRN. I was taking pain medication and not paying much attention to the side effects until my insides got so backed up and I was seriously constipated and embarrassed.

The first enema she gave me was extremely crampy and I told her that I didn't want another one. She nicely persisted and over the next few days, enemas and several other measures got my system working again. What I remember most during that time was that I actually grew to like getting the enemas and wasn't as embarrassed.

Bob1952

Pardon my ignorance, but what is a v BBC?

Many years ago the question: “Soapsuds enema" was on the order sets upon admission to the hospital and the doc would simply check the YES or NO box next to it. Also, many hospital units have standing ”bowel protocols" which prescribe specific procedures for bowel interventions, i.e. Milk of Magnesia, then suppository and then enema. Today it is mostly a Fleets world out there and I have not worked on a hospital floor in many years, so really have no idea what is going on today, but do know the soapsuds enema is now a seldom used procedure in the hospitals.

Doctors can authorize protocols on a patient by patient basis that give the nurses leeway to make care decisions. But they won’t go outside those protocols without Doctor permission.

Enemas are really a last resort now and have to be cleared by a doctor. They can leave orders but everything goes through them for medication.

Currently, here in Australia an enema (fleet, MicroLax, barium) can only prescribed by a doctor since they are regarded as a medical treatment and/or medication. I know this because I work in a hospital as a nurse assistant.

Suppositories which are mainly used to relieve constipation must also be prescribed by a doctor since they are also regarded as a medical treatment and/or medication, because many of them also contain pain killer drugs like paracetamol in addition. Worth noting that some drugs do come in the form of suppositories and are used in situations where a patient (for several reasons) may not be able to take medication orally or via IV injection.

However, with regards to your question 'Hospital Enemas On Whose Orders?', I think the answer will depend in what country the hospital/clinic is located, and what time decade period.

Perhaps currently in some countries nurses are legally authorized to administer enemas without a doctors prescription. Perhaps this was the case during WW1 and WW2 in military hospitals where doctors were few and nurses may have had the authority and necessity to make clinical decisions/judgement based on their previous training and experience. (Feel free to correct me regarding this point).

As I have stated in some of my other posts, as a child I was admitted 8 times in a hospital in Rome between 1972-1976. Back then and for that part of the world, it was the hospital policy to administer pre-op enemas to young boys. I am not able to speak for for any other sex or age group because I never witnessed anyone else besides myself and the other boys receiving enemas.

Because I never dared to ask any questions, I am not able to answer if those enemas were individually prescribed by a doctor for each individual boy, or if it was the standard hospital practice policy to administer pre-op enemas to boys/girls/teens/adults. If it was the standard practice policy to do so, then it is possible that those nurses may have had the authority to administer enemas without a doctor's prescription for each and every individual patient on the operating list.

@Clisterious How did you find out about the other patients? When they applied it, was it possible to see?

Having been in the hospital twice in the last several months, I've been queried on several occasions regarding elimination, both urinary and bowel.

After back surgery, there was emphasis put on assuring BM's due to opioid meds. One of the older nurses seemed to be more concerned and was pushing the usual stool softeners. She said to be sure to stay ahead of pain and the BM issues.

As I was being schooled on discharge instructions, she mentioned that if I was having indications of constipation or an impaction, that I be sure to use laxatives or other methods to avoid negative complications. I saw this as a chance to further discussions of enema use.

She commented that Fleet Enemas were a common method. I asked her opinion of water or soapy enemas inasmuch as my mom and grandma used to give me enemas when younger. She opened up and said that those old fashioned enemas were not often recommended anymore, but she still preferred them to the chemical based which were convenient.

I told her I still took enemas with my trusty enema bag and found them effective and even relaxing. She said "I'm sure you'll be fine if you pay attention to your elimination and a good old fashioned enema will keep things moving."

Thank goodness Roxy or Victoria were usually hanging around to provide those treatments as needed!

In uk doctors only but nurses advised doctors who been going or not so on there say so but docs signed order to give treatment nurses very good at manipulation

In uk doctors only but nurses advised doctors who been going or not so on there say so but docs signed order to give treatment nurses very good at manipulation

I'd guess it's pretty much like that here in the US as well.

I don't know if it was doctor ordered or the nursing sister . All i can tell you is that the nurses two of them . Turned up at my bed with two big bags of saline . They took my wash basin and filled it with warm water and placed the two bags in . They then striped me below the waist and put an incontinence sheet under neath me . Flipped me over on my left hand side lubed me up and i felt the tube going deep inside me and the warm relaxing at first feeling . That turned to cramps and they flipped me back over on a bed pan and supported me while a very large 5 day old tree branch exploded from me . I say tree branch because that's what it felt like . A turd over two feet long . Within about two hours i was so hungry again and i was given two enemas a day for the next week while on the morphine pump . As i was taken off the morphine my bowel returned to normal

In former times in all the hospitals in Germany the daily enema given by the nurses without any advice of a doctor has been the most normal thing in the world. The visitors had to leave the room and the colon of every man, women or child has been filled with a soapy solution.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5125440/

When I was in the hospital once (I was 16), the nurse apparently decided this herself. It wasn't a real enema but a microclist. It all happened really quickly! She came in, I had to turn on my side and pull down my panties. Shortly afterwards she pressed the small enema into my bottom. The liquid burned a bit and was very unpleasant. When she went out I went straight to the toilet. I wasn't constipated or anything! She didn't come back to check whether it had worked! Very strange somehow!

When I was in the hospital once (I was 16), the nurse apparently decided this herself. It wasn't a real enema but a microclist. It all happened really quickly! She came in, I had to turn on my side and pull down my panties. Shortly afterwards she pressed the small enema into my bottom. The liquid burned a bit and was very unpleasant. When she went out I went straight to the toilet. I wasn't constipated or anything! She didn't come back to check whether it had worked! Very strange somehow!

It was very common here (Italy) to receive this type of medication. When I had my appendix removed, after 3 days I were regular but they wanted still administer me an enema. I was 9. The nurse came in my room and without saying me what it was happening, rolled me face down and removed my panties. After, I felt her finger rubbing an unguent on my butt and after she said to me: take a breath. She suddenly emptied the microenema into my butt and I cried. After she said: "It is only an enema. 5 minutes and you will feel the urge to poop. Call me when you are ready" I feel my bottom burning so much and after few minutes I have a very strong BM. Definitely, it was very unpleasant