UTI Assessment Tool for Intermittent Catheter Users: A Way to Include User Perspectives and Enhance Quality of UTI Management - Beyond the Abstract
Beyond the impact that UTIs have on the person, they are also linked to repeated visits to Healthcare Professionals (HCPs), high hospitalisation rates, and subsequently increased costs to the healthcare system. Therefore, it is imperative that they be thoroughly addressed and that efforts to prevent their occurrence or reoccurrence be put into place. UTIs are a multifactorial condition, with contributing risk factors being associated to the catheter product, adherence, but also to individual health-related factors.1 Therefore, the causes of UTIs can be as extensive as the number of individuals using IC. In parallel, the HCPs addressing UTIs have different experiences, specialisations, and time availability, adding variability in the way that UTIs are addressed.
In this project we set out to develop the UTI assessment tool for intermittent catheter users: a tool that can support HCPs across practices in performing an assessment of UTI risk factors in a systematic and structured way, but also a tool that considers the individual IC user and includes them and their perspectives in the consultation.
With the UTI risk factors model as the scientific point of departure, we collaborated with 90 nurses across Europe and consulted the published literature outlining the users’ perspectives. Following a systematic yet iterative process, the content was developed along with the design of the tool that consists of 1) a guide for healthcare professionals, 2) a dialogue board for collaboration with the user, and 3) a notepad with copies that can be shared with the user along with notes.
The content of the tool has purposefully been divided into 6 sections that guide the consultation. The discussion starts with a confirmation of the UTI, to avoid treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria and the risk of antibiotic resistance. Subsequently, the consultation focuses on identifying UTI risk factors within four domains, namely Health, Adherence, Technique, and Catheter, and taking appropriate actions to mitigate the risks. Finally, the consultation closes by allocating time for Support to the user, ensuring that they have comprehended all the topics covered and know how to proceed. The tool assumes a user-centric approach, both due to the presence of the Dialogue board that helps the user follow along and understand the various concepts, but also because of the flow of the tool, which begins with gaining a wider perspective on the user’s life and priorities, before going into some more intimate and potentially intrusive topics, such as demonstration of the IC technique.
Therefore, this tool can aid the systematic assessment of UTIs and subsequently may help prevent the recurrence of UTIs. Furthermore, the implementation of this tool can unify the way that UTI assessment is performed across different practices.
Written by: S. V. Lauridsen, M. A. Averbeck, A. Krassioukov, R. Vaabengaard, S. Athanasiadou
Department of Urology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark., Moinhos de Vento Hospital, Porto Alegre, Brazil., International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia, Endowment Lands, Canada., Coloplast A/S, Humlebaek, Denmark.
Reference:
Read the Abstract