• ACA logo

Understanding Continence Promotion: Effective Management of Bladder and Bowel Dysfunction in Adults

Develop the skills to work with adults with different types of continence problems and understand effective treatments.

4,895 enrolled on this course

A toilet
  • Duration

    7 weeks
  • Weekly study

    3 hours

Learn how to support self-management of continence conditions

On this course you’ll examine the principles and practice of promoting continence with people who have bladder or bowel dysfunction.

You’ll learn how to recognise and assess the common conditions experienced. You’ll develop the skills to work with adults with different types of continence problems.

You’ll also learn how to create effective management plans to treat the condition, and explore how to minimise the impact of these stigmatising conditions.

By the end of the course you’ll understand how to effectively treat the condition, and support the person to self-manage their condition.

Download video: standard or HD

Skip to 0 minutes and 15 seconds We need to talk about pee and poo.

Skip to 0 minutes and 20 seconds Poorly treated bladder and bowel incontinence causes untold distress and illness and with a growing aging population continence has become everyone’s business. It’s time to break toilet taboos and talk about how we can best treat incontinence. Those of us in the caring professions need a clear understanding of all the factors involved. Whether you’re a nurse, a physiotherapist, a GP, or other health professional, being aware of your treatment options helps your patients to avoid distress, discomfort, and illness. That’s why the Association for Continence Advice have launched this online learning programme to help you consider your options for continence treatment before containment. I’m Jo Booth. For many years I’ve been studying how best to support people with bladder and bowel health problems.

Skip to 1 minute and 17 seconds I’m now the course director for the Understanding Continence Promotion online course brought to you by the Association for Continence Advice. I’m leading a great team of experts from a range of health care professions. And, in this course, we bring our knowledge and experience to you. We’ll explore a range of topics, designed to give you the knowledge and skills to apply the latest continence research to your practice. We’ll encourage you to develop confidence in your abilities to treat bladder and bowel continence issues. Helping you identify issues and finding accurate causes so the most appropriate treatments can be offered.

Skip to 1 minute and 59 seconds Whether you’re a nurse, a GP, physiotherapist, or other form of health professional, or anyone with continence concerns, looking to make a positive difference to your understanding and practice, this course is for you. It’s time to talk about continence and FutureLearn is a great place to learn. You’ll be part of an online community. You’ll learn from continence experts, people with continence issues, and from each other. So, come and join us on this innovative and taboo-breaking course.

What topics will you cover?

  • Paradigm and principles of continence promotion with adults
  • Structure and function of the bladder and bowel
  • Experience of common bladder and bowel conditions
  • Bladder and bowel assessment, dysfunction identification and management planning to provide the ‘right care’ from the outset
  • Effective conservative interventions and how to implement with individuals
  • Other treatment options for bladder and/or bowel dysfunction

Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

  • Describe and explain principles underpinning the provision of specialist continence advice
  • Demonstrate clinical knowledge of bladder and bowel dysfunction in adults
  • Describe the components and practice of effective assessment and explain how to identify different types of bladder/bowel dysfunction
  • Design and implement effective management plans to treat the condition(s), minimise individual impact and support self-management
  • Explore and debate knowledge and skills required to work collaboratively with other disciplines and agencies to effectively promote bladder and bowel continence

Who is the course for?

The course is for healthcare professionals, in particular nurses, physiotherapists and occupational therapists. It may also be of interest to anyone experiencing bladder or bowel dysfunction.

If you are a continence professional in the UK or Ireland, the ACA are offering free upgraded access to this course to new and existing members. Please contact the ACA to take advantage of this offer.

What do people say about this course?

Absolutely brilliant course, so much information to work with!

"Absolutely brilliant course, so much information to work with, this will most certainly help me in my place of work to be more confident."

I feel this should be mandatory for all nurses in the UK.

"Thank you. I have thoroughly enjoyed this course. It has been excellent. It has been thought provoking. The information, articles and research articles have been really informative. "

Who developed the course?

Association for Continence Advice

The ACA is a multi-professional association open to all health and allied care professionals who are working within, or have an interest in the field of bladder and bowel management.

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
  • Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate

Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn

Learner reviews

Learner reviews cannot be loaded due to your cookie settings. Please and refresh the page to view this content.

Get a taste of this course

Find out what this course is like by previewing some of the course steps before you join:

Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...

You can use the hashtag #FLcontinence to talk about this course on social media.