Continence for women: evaluation of AWHONN's third research utilization project. Association of Women's Health...

To develop an evidence-based protocol for initial evaluation and treatment of urinary incontinence and to design procedures that would facilitate the protocol's implementation into clinical practice.

Descriptive report of the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) Continence for Women Project.

Twenty-one public, private, and other women's health sites.

Women in ambulatory care settings (N = 1,474) provided demographic statistics.

The protocol was developed, sites were selected, site coordinator training was provided, data collection was facilitated by project-specific teleforms, and the overall process was evaluated by the science team.

Site representation, patient representation, site coordinator feedback on the training program, and site coordinator experience during project implementation.

The process yielded a representative mix of site and patient diversity appropriate for testing of the protocol. Site coordinators felt well-prepared to implement the protocol and experienced increased professional satisfaction because of therapeutic benefits achieved for patients and positive collaboration with physicians.

The Continence for Women Project demonstrated the potential for developing and testing evidence-based protocols for clinical practice when the resources of an organization such as AWHONN and the research community are combined.