Improving continence education for nurses

Care for patients with continence problems is often substandard, and inadequate education is often cited as a probable cause. These factors, combined with the forecasted increase in the number of people with incontinence, prompted us to undertake a survey of all UK higher education institutions to establish how much undergraduate continence education nursing and other students receive. A mean of five hours per programme was provided (range 2.5-7). Our results indicate that the amount of undergraduate continence education has changed little over the past 17 years. Developing core competencies - which can be taught using innovative techniques in an interprofessional setting - may be a useful way to fill in the gaps that exist in continence education.