Teachers’ Knowledge of Normal and Abnormal Elimination Patterns in Elementary School Children

Abstract

Dysfunctional elimination may be learned, to some degree. Because children spend nearly half of their waking hours at school, there is the potential for school to have a significant impact on their elimination patterns. Surveys were mailed to 1,000 randomly selected Iowa public elementary school teachers; 467 of the surveys were returned. Findings indicate that most elementary school teachers are unaware of the potential health problems of elimination dysfunction. One third of respondents indicated that they ask children to wait to go to the bathroom. Suboptimal conditions exist in most of the school bathrooms, with only 35% of the boys’ restrooms and 48% of the girls’ restrooms reported as “always clean.” Those teachers with more experience were more likely to report information about abnormal elimination to the school nurse. Very few teachers (18% of respondents) reported having received information about abnormal elimination and even fewer (8% of respondents) were aware of specialists trained to treat children with these problems. School nurses can have a significant impact on the development of healthy bladder habits in children. Teachers need information about normal and abnormal elimination patterns in children.