An exploration of the effects of introducing a telemonitoring system for continence assessment in a nursing home.
OBJECTIVE
To explore the effects of introducing a telemonitoring and care planning system for urinary continence assessment in a nursing home and adherence by care staff to urinary continence care plans.


BACKGROUND
Only a few studies have explored the effect of introducing telemonitoring system on urinary continence care, none for older people in nursing homes.


METHODS
Pre- and postintervention repeated measures design.


METHODS
Data for the study were collected from August-October 2011. Care staff were trained in the use of a telemonitoring system for continence assessment. Voiding events for each older person were recorded using the system during a 72-hour urinary continence assessment, and the data were used to prepare an individualised care plan. After two weeks of using the new care plan, a second assessment was carried out for each older person, using the telemonitoring system.


RESULTS
The participants were on average 81 years old and assessed as having high care needs. The statistically significant outcomes were as follows: reduced volume of urine voided into continence aids, reduced number of prescribed toileting visits, increased number of actual toilet visits, increased number of successful toileting events and increased adherence to urinary continence care plans by staff.


CONCLUSIONS
During a 12-week trial, urinary continence assessment and management of older people were improved. This suggests that the introduction of a suitably designed telemonitoring system combined with staff training can improve urinary continence care.


CONCLUSIONS
The results suggest that nursing homes can improve continence assessment and management practices by adopting an appropriately designed mobile, wireless telemonitoring system for continence assessment and providing the associated staff training programmes.
School of IS and IT, Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
Ping
P
Yu
David
D
Hailey
Richard
R
Fleming
Victoria
V
Traynor
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009730:Nursing Assessment; D009735:Nursing Homes; D015397:Program Evaluation; D017216:Telemedicine; D014549:Urinary Incontinence / Q000451:nursing / Q000517:prevention & control*
care plan; continence; nursing assessment; nursing home care; nursing information systems; telehealth