A urinary incontinence continuing education online course for community health nurses in South Korea.

BACKGROUND: Although urinary incontinence is prevalent among older women living in rural Korea, a lack of awareness and education exists in this population and among health professionals. Geographic isolation and limited resources also contribute to having few educational offerings for rural nurses. The authors' aim was to develop an online continuing education course on continence care for community health nurses and to examine its effectiveness.

METHOD: A one-group, pretest-posttest design was used to detect changes in knowledge and attitudes after taking the online education course. Participant satisfaction was also measured at the end of the training.

RESULTS: A significant improvement in knowledge and attitudes toward continence care was noted. More than 95% of participants responded that they would recommend the online program to other health care providers and indicated the program would be helpful regarding continence care in their practice.

CONCLUSION: The continuing education online course is a feasible strategy to support rural community health nurses' learning to improve knowledge and attitudes toward urinary incontinence management and care.