Abstract
The aim of the present study was to investigate if a personal toilet-plan improves continence in cognitively impaired elderly residents, and describe the consumption of resources.
A quasi-experimental design was used with the patients being their own control group, measured before and after the intervention. The subjects were five residents in a small nursing home unit with a mean age of 85.8 years. The amount of urine leakage, fluid and materials were monitored for 48 hours. The nursing time spent for toilet-assistance was monitored twice for each resident in both test-periods. Part of the Resident Assessment Instrument (RAI) and other instruments developed for monitoring resources and incontinence status was used in data collection.
Urinary incontinence was decreased during three weeks with 44% in the whole group (n=5). Four of the residents showed an improvement diurnal over baseline from 38% to 100%. The average nursing time spent daily on assisting a resident to the toilet increased with 35.1 minutes (n=5). The consumption of material was about the same.