Healthcare personnel's attitudes towards patients with urinary incontinence

The aim of the study was to understand the variability of Norwegian staff's attitudes towards patients with urinary incontinence across years and place of work, age and education levels. The Incontinence Stress Questionnaire-Staff Reaction (Norwegian version) (ISQ-SR-N) was used to measure staff's reactions and feelings towards patients with urinary incontinence. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather self-reported data. The research sites were five nursing homes, three home care districts and medical and surgical wards at a university hospital. Of the 745 staff invited, 535 (72%) returned the questionnaire. Staff members working in long-term care units were older than staff members working in acute care units. Most of the registered nurses worked in acute care, whilst most of the nursing assistants worked in long-term care. Stepwise regression analysis identified education, working in a medical/surgical units, and the interaction of education and working in a medical unit to be most predictive of attitudes. Nursing assistants had more positive attitudes than registered nurses. Working in medical/surgical units predicted the most negative attitudes. Only 15.2% of the variability of attitudes can be explained by the predictive variables.