Nurses' knowledge and practice about urinary incontinence in nursing home care.

Background: An important barrier in the implementation of effective incontinence treatments is the level of knowledge of the nurses concerning assessment and treatment of urinary incontinence. Therefore, it is important to assess current nurses' knowledge and practice in urinary incontinence care so that nurses can receive adequate training and education.

Objective: This article reports on the development and testing of the Urinary Incontinence Practice and Knowledge Scale as well as the results of nurses' practice and knowledge about urinary incontinence.

Methods: A cross-sectional design with a convenience sample of nurses and nurse assistants was used.

Results: Nurses answer two-thirds of the questions correctly. The level of knowledge of the nurse assistants is lower than that of nurses. Education and experience in the field are associated with the level of knowledge. Nurses and nurse assistants perform continence-related actions only 'sometimes' or 'often' at best. Both groups have best results in the subscale 'Support' and they have most deficits in 'Documentation'.

Conclusions: Nurses and nurse assistants need more education and training in urinary incontinence care. Special focus should lie on documentation. The results give information towards adequate education and training for nurses as well as nurse assistants.