Educational preparation: specialist practice in continence care.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Continence Care
• Healthcare Professional Development

Background:

• Effective continence service provision relies on funding, organization, and expert knowledge.
• Undergraduate education for nurses, doctors, and physiotherapists in continence care is limited.
• Nurses often gain continence knowledge through experience and trial-and-error, with limited understanding of advanced postgraduate education effectiveness.

Purpose of the Study:

• To outline a continence education module designed to prepare specialist nurses for high-standard, safe, and effective continence care.
• To evaluate the module's impact on continence knowledge, attitudes towards research, and acceptability.
• To inform the educational preparation of nurses in new nurse-led continence services.

Main Methods:

• Development of a specialized continence education module.
• Evaluation of the module within the Leicestershire Medical Research Council (MRC) Incontinence Study.
• Exploration of changes in continence knowledge, research attitudes, and module acceptability.

Main Results:

• The continence education module was developed and evaluated.
• Changes in specialist nurses' continence knowledge and attitudes were assessed.
• The acceptability of the educational module was explored.

Conclusions:

• The developed module prepares specialist nurses to provide safe and effective continence care.
• Systematic detailing of educational preparation is crucial for establishing new nurse-led continence services.
• Discussion of module design and implementation challenges can inform future educational initiatives.