Healthcare professionals’ experiences and views of providing continence support and advice to people living at home with dementia: “That’s a carer’s job”
Healthcare professionals’ experiences and views of providing continence support and advice to people living at home with dementia: “That’s a carer’s job”
Background: people living with dementia at home and their family carers often feel unsupported by healthcare professionals in managing continence problems. In turn, primary and community-based healthcare professionals have reported lacking specific knowledge on dementia-continence. This study aimed to understand more about healthcare professionals’ experiences and views of supporting people living with dementia experiencing continence problems, as part of developing acceptable resources. Having a nuanced understanding of unmet need would facilitate the design of engaging resources that enable healthcare professionals to provide more effective continence support to people living with dementia at home.
Methods: semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of healthcare professionals (n = 31) working in primary and community care in the South of England in 2023. Transcribed interviews were uploaded to NVivo 12, then analysed inductively and deductively using a thematic framework.
Results: continence-related conversations were avoided by many healthcare professionals due to lack of dementia-continence specific knowledge. Many considered that continence problems of people living with dementia were largely outside their remit once a physical cause had been ruled out. This contributed to a lack of priority and proactivity in raising the subject of continence in their consultations. Challenges to providing support included limited consultation time and lack of access to specialist services with availability to support individuals.
Conclusion: there is substantial scope to support primary and community-based healthcare professionals in their provision of continence-related support and advice to people living at home with dementia. This includes addressing knowledge deficits, enhancing confidence and instilling a sense of accomplishment.
Continence management, Dementia care, Primary healthcare professionals, Urinary incontinence
Bradbury, Barbara
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Chester, Helen
ee8a740c-c993-4357-84ad-db21d9943d9d
Santer, Miriam
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Morrison, Leanne
920a4eda-0f9d-4bd9-842d-6873b1afafef
Fader, Mandy
c318f942-2ddb-462a-9183-8b678faf7277
Ward, Jane
9441f950-83dc-4ced-b51f-828ecef649fb
Manthorpe, Jill
3949fdec-411e-4be3-bd5e-ab113f9ced3f
Murphy, Catherine
b7f2dd56-3a8a-412a-9f6a-bf468ce7f749
Bradbury, Barbara
100cce6d-9c99-4a93-9b2c-23b2ec5274a4
Chester, Helen
ee8a740c-c993-4357-84ad-db21d9943d9d
Santer, Miriam
3ce7e832-31eb-4d27-9876-3a1cd7f381dc
Morrison, Leanne
920a4eda-0f9d-4bd9-842d-6873b1afafef
Fader, Mandy
c318f942-2ddb-462a-9183-8b678faf7277
Ward, Jane
9441f950-83dc-4ced-b51f-828ecef649fb
Manthorpe, Jill
3949fdec-411e-4be3-bd5e-ab113f9ced3f
Murphy, Catherine
b7f2dd56-3a8a-412a-9f6a-bf468ce7f749
Bradbury, Barbara, Chester, Helen and Santer, Miriam
,
et al.
(2024)
Healthcare professionals’ experiences and views of providing continence support and advice to people living at home with dementia: “That’s a carer’s job”.
BMC Geriatrics, 24 (1), [213].
(doi:10.1186/s12877-024-04830-8).
Abstract
Background: people living with dementia at home and their family carers often feel unsupported by healthcare professionals in managing continence problems. In turn, primary and community-based healthcare professionals have reported lacking specific knowledge on dementia-continence. This study aimed to understand more about healthcare professionals’ experiences and views of supporting people living with dementia experiencing continence problems, as part of developing acceptable resources. Having a nuanced understanding of unmet need would facilitate the design of engaging resources that enable healthcare professionals to provide more effective continence support to people living with dementia at home.
Methods: semi-structured interviews were conducted with a range of healthcare professionals (n = 31) working in primary and community care in the South of England in 2023. Transcribed interviews were uploaded to NVivo 12, then analysed inductively and deductively using a thematic framework.
Results: continence-related conversations were avoided by many healthcare professionals due to lack of dementia-continence specific knowledge. Many considered that continence problems of people living with dementia were largely outside their remit once a physical cause had been ruled out. This contributed to a lack of priority and proactivity in raising the subject of continence in their consultations. Challenges to providing support included limited consultation time and lack of access to specialist services with availability to support individuals.
Conclusion: there is substantial scope to support primary and community-based healthcare professionals in their provision of continence-related support and advice to people living at home with dementia. This includes addressing knowledge deficits, enhancing confidence and instilling a sense of accomplishment.
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Bradbury et al_Feb 2024_BMC Geriatrics
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Accepted/In Press date: 20 February 2024
e-pub ahead of print date: 29 February 2024
Keywords:
Continence management, Dementia care, Primary healthcare professionals, Urinary incontinence
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Local EPrints ID: 488360
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/488360
ISSN: 1471-2318
PURE UUID: d8c0a37d-f0cc-4aac-a7d5-8dc82a19627b
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Date deposited: 21 Mar 2024 17:30
Last modified: 27 Apr 2024 02:19
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Author:
Barbara Bradbury
Author:
Helen Chester
Author:
Jane Ward
Author:
Jill Manthorpe
Corporate Author: et al.
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