title: Understanding barriers to continence care in institutions.
abstract: This work seeks to identify factors that facilitate or diminish care-providers' propensity to improve continence care in long-term care (LTC) settings. We conducted a cross-sectional qualitative study using focus group methodology in four long-term care institutions in Montreal, QC. Forty-two nurses, nursing assistants, and orderlies caring for incontinent elderly residents were asked how they perceived urinary incontinence (UI), how it was being managed, and what factors enabled or hindered continence care in their institution. Content analysis was used. Facilitating and inhibiting elements of three individual/internal factors (beliefs about UI, attitudes towards the elderly, and knowledge about UI) and five institutional/external factors (workload demands, type of patient, environmental support, co-worker support, and attributes of UI interventions) emerged as important determinants of care-providers' propensity to manage UI. To be successful, continence programs must target multidimensional elements that take into account personal, systems, and organizational level factors.
authors.affiliation: Research Centre, Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal, 4565 Queen Mary Road, Suite 7824, Montreal, QC, H3W 1W5, Canada. cara.tannenbaum@umontreal.ca
authors.forename: Cara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Tannenbaum
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Labrecque
authors.forename: Christiane
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lepage
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D006707:Homes for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care; D009735:Nursing Homes; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000628:therapy*