Urinary Incontinence Research with Associate Degree Nursing Students
Sharon Aronovitch, PhD, RN, CWOCN, conducted a study with associate degree nursing students’ to determine if their beliefs, attitudes, knowledge of urinary incontinence (UI) impacted their clinical judgment when caring for a patient who is experiencing UI. Aronovitch is lead faculty program director of the graduate nursing program at Excelsior.
This was a non-experimental study using a convenience sample of associate degree nursing students from a distance-based and traditional associate degree nursing programs. The 501 participants in the study had completed the urinary incontinence component of the respective school’s curriculum. Each student received an email containing an introduction to the study which included a link to the study instruments, Urinary Incontinence Scales, developed by Joan Shade Henderson and a demographic sheet.
The response rate was low (16.97%, n=85; N=501) with the distance-based associate degree nursing students having a higher participation rate and nine participants did not identify a school affiliation. The participants mean scores for the Beliefs Scale (93.69, SD 12.18, maximum score 138) and the Attitude Scale (91.01, SD 12.01, maximum score of 120) demonstrated a positive impact on the care the associate degree nursing student provided to patients experiencing urinary incontinence. The scores for the Facts Scale (25.61, SD 2.79, maximum of 35) indicated a high recall of UI knowledge and the Actions Scale (41.76, SD 19.64, maximum of 75) demonstrated the critical thinking required to manage UI was only moderate.
