Interventions for Long Term Urinary Catheter Users
Mary Wilde, PhD, RN, Professor at the School of Nursing has an extensive background in community/public health and home care.
Her research is focused on improving self management of long-term urinary catheter users to prevent catheter related problems.
Dr. Wilde has completed a current randomized trial teaching awareness and self-monitoring skills to indwelling urinary catheter users as a component of self management. The study was conducted in Central and Western New York and in addition partnered with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (City). This large randomized trial (N=202) was funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) part of the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH). The intervention involved four contacts with a study nurse over the first four months of their 12 months' participation to learn to increase awareness and self-monitoring of patterns of urine flow and to modify self-management behavior. The purpose is to decrease catheter related urinary tract infection, blockage, and dislodgement with their associated healthcare costs and to improve catheter-related quality of life.
Recently, Professor Wilde shifted to a similar population of persons who use intermittent catheters and conducted a feasibility study in using a web-based approach to self-management of problems and issues. The study was funded by NINR, NIH for two years. An additional grant from the Leary Fund was used to create a mobile phone friendly application for the intervention site and in particular for the web-based urinary diary.
Mary Wilde is a member of the Nurses Committee of the International Continence Society, has presented there often, abstracts and workshops. She is planning a series of powerpoint mini lectures for their website.She continues to consult with Professor Mandy Fader at Southampton University (UK) on several projects, including a study examining reuse of intermittent catheters and one on urinary bag decontamination, which is in planning stages.
My research goal is to improve the everyday lives of community dwelling people with long-term urinary catheters--particularly indwelling catheter users--and to help provide better evidence for practice. Catheter related-problems include urinary tract infection (UTI), blockage or obstruction of the catheter, accidental dislodgement, and leakage or bypassing of urine. These problems cause considerable disruption in catheter users and their families' daily routines, and they contribute to excess health care expense. Nurses in home care or clinics often are involved in troubleshooting or managing the problems, frequently during evening and weekend hours.
My studies have been to: 1) identify and describe catheter related problems, 2) understand the lived experience of catheter users, 3) explore relationships among key catheter-related variables believed to contribute to catheter problems, and 4) develop self-management interventions to address the problems.