The role of the nurse in patients with urinary incontinence

Urinary incontinence is a common disease that is often underestimated. Patient education is very important for early detection of possible complications in patients with urinary incontinence. The bachelor's thesis is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part focuses on the anatomy and physiology of the lower urinary tract, general information about urinary incontinence, examination methods, treatment, the nurse's role, prevention, education, and finally the most common nursing diagnoses are mentioned. The aim of the empirical part was to find out what the nurse's role is in patients with urinary incontinence, what nursing diagnoses nurses make in patients with urinary incontinence, and what incontinence aids nurses use in nursing care for patients with urinary incontinence. The research was focused on nurses working in the urology department, namely in the ambulatory department, the inpatient department and the Intensive Care Unit. In total, three research questions were established for this research. The research investigation was carried out in the form of semi-structured interviews. The research group consisted of 10 nurses. From the obtained data, it was found that the role of the nurse in the ambulatory part of the urology department, the standard inpatient department and the Intensive Care Unit is different. Furthermore, the research showed that nurses in the Intensive Care Unit do not instruct patients and do not give patients information about the possibilities of using compensatory aids. We also found out that nurses in the ambulatory part of the urology department cannot hand out information brochures to patients without a doctor's indication. On the other hand, the nurses of the inpatient wards can hand out information brochures at their discretion. At the same time, nurses working in the Intensive Care Unit have a smaller number of information brochures at their disposal and only hand them to patients if the patient shows interest. Furthermore, we found that very few nurses make nursing diagnoses.The output of the bachelor thesis is an informative brochure. It can be beneficial not only for nurses and students of medical fields, but also for patients, who can raise awareness about the problem of urinary incontinence