Continence expert visits Resthaven
Continence nurses from South Australian care provider Resthaven heard from American continence expert Professor Mary Palmer last week, keeping them up to date on the best evidence based care when it comes to continence.
Assoc Prof Lily Xiao from Flinders University, Prof Mary Palmer, Sue McKechnie, executive manager Resthaven Community Services and Assoc Prof Ann Harrington outside Resthaven’s new Head Office.
Resthaven welcomed visiting scholar, Professor Mary Palmer, to its Leabrook residential care home and new head office at Wayville.
Professor Palmer is the Helen W and Thomas L Umphlet Distinguished Professor in Aging at the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill School of Nursing.
She is in Australia as a visiting scholar to Flinders University, consulting on a multicultural workforce development project, led by the university and in partnership with Resthaven and Anglicare.
Resthaven executive manager residential services, Tina Emery, says “Continence management is one of Resthaven’s specialist clinical areas where we strive for excellence.
It is an incredibly important field, noting that approximately 84% of people who live in Australian residential care facilities have some form of incontinence, often at great cost to their quality of life.”
Professor Palmer is well known for her interdisciplinary research on the prevalence, incidence, and risk factors for and correlates of urinary incontinence in adults. Her current research investigates the meaning of bladder health to women across the life span.
Ms Emery says, “Professor Palmer also engaged in an open forum with executive and senior managers, sharing aged care knowledge from an Australian and American context, and identifying innovations that can assist our services to meet the care needs of older people in the future. These are very important discussions.”
