Continence Promotion and Care

Bowel and bladder problems can have a devastating effect on quality of life and dignity, both for patients who are dependent on others due to physical or mental disability, and for those who are otherwise independent. This category rewards initiatives and innovations that promote continence, increase the effectiveness of care and improve the quality of life of people who have continence problems, whether temporarily or permanently.

This award is open to individual nurses or teams working in any setting in the NHS or independent sector – including nursing and residential homes – and those working in specialist continence services. Entrants must be able to demonstrate how a change in practice has resulted in clear improvements in patients’ or clients’ continence or enhanced their dignity by minimising the impact of continence problems.

Innovations could include:

• Developing educational programmes staff and/or patients to increase understanding of continence problems and how to address them
• Improving access to continence advice and care
• Meeting the needs of a new client group

Each entry will be judged against the following criteria:

• Innovation: originality of the idea
• Value: impact of the initiative on patient care and/or service effectiveness
• Patient focus: evidence that patient/service user need was central to the work
• Collaboration: evidence of the involvement of other professionals, services and/or patients in the project
• Clinical effectiveness: data demonstrating how this initiative drives clinical enhancements
• Leadership: evidence of entrants championing their innovation in their organisation or more widely
• Adaptability: ideas that could be adapted for use elsewhere in entrants’ organisations or other organisations
• Sustainability: initiatives that can be embedded within organisations to operate without the input of the people who developed them 

This award category is endorsed by the Association for Continence Advice.

If you are shortlisted for this award, and with coronavirus conditions permitting, you will be invited to attend our Covid-19 secure offices to present to the judges on Tuesday 7 September 2021. The shortlist will be informed if there are any changes to the final judging process.

Take a look at what our 2019 winner had to say about winning this award: