Professional Development at ICS: From novice to expert

The goal of this session is to provide practical steps for professional development within ICS and beyond – with emphasis on leadership, research, and clinical opportunities. We will provide insight and tools to support professional success and a framework to avoid mistakes and pitfalls. You will hear from local nursing colleagues in Madrid speak about their successes and challenges in a country that does not have formal recognition of the specialty. We will discuss ways to become actively involved in ICS and how to conduct continence related nursing research and translational research and disseminate findings such as at the ICS.

Learning Objectives

1. Identify the roles that urologic and continence nursing play in other countries and collaborate to promote continence nursing
2. Describe steps for performing and disseminating nursing research about continence topics
3. Describe steps for translating findings of continence related research into practice

Description
The ICS is a unique organization where many disciplines with a passion for the same field come together in a collaborative and multidisciplinary manner. The ICS has been has been advancing multidisciplinary continence research and education worldwide since 1971. Someone once said without mentoring new leaders an organization dies. Everyone starts somewhere and this workshop hopes to encourage not only nurses, not only early career professionals but all attendees to develop their role and place at the table of the Society.

The multidisciplinary aspect of the organization and the focus of such a specific area of care sets the organization apart from any other. . While multidisciplinary approaches utilize experts from different disciplines, the contributions from these experts are often used without integration. This workshop will present how to conduct interdisciplinary research which integrates experts across different disciplines, conducting its work jointly. Transdisciplinary research integrates discipline-specific approaches and extends to generate a fundamentally new aspect to scientific inquiry. Transdisciplinary research has been the focus of bladder health research (Harlow et al., 2018).

We have included our local nursing colleague from the AEEU who will share the importance, evolution and perspectives of urological nursing in the care of patients with continence and bladder dysfunction in Spain. Ms Coronel will discuss the importance of having well trained and recognized nursing to guarantee a better quality of life for patients with incontinence. She will also discuss the future of continence nursing in Spain.

Through discussion on organizational opportunities, Dr. Wallace (a urogynecologist) will share with attendees how to navigate the structure of the ICS and what leadership and mentorship opportunities are available. She will also provide a framework on how to start one’s professional development and some tips and tricks that can help to maintain and sustain this journey. Dr. Wallace will focus on leadership, clinical, and research roles and how these paths can be both different, similar and simultaneous. The development of research that could ultimately lead to abstract and/or journal submission is often an overwhelming thought for many individuals in any profession.

Dr. Bliss will describe how to turn your question about incontinence into a research study. She will highlight how to match your question for research with the appropriate study design and methods and discuss the value and limitations of various designs. She will explain the benefit of team research, selecting members who can make appropriate contributions. She will outline the key steps of planning and conducting a research study focused on addressing an incontinence problem and strategies for increasing the success of communicating your findings to professional colleagues such as in the ICS conference and journal. Dr. Bliss will draw upon her own research and publications in providing examples during her presentation.

Dr. Newman will provide education and insight into international research on continence management including both qualitative and quantitative research. She will present ways to conduct transdisciplinary research on incontinence products (e.g. catheters, absorbent products). She will explain how to use surveys of those performing intermittent catheterization, how to determine quality of life in patients with an indwelling urinary catheter, utilization of an online database to understand the relationship between activity and Kegel exercises in women, and choosing clinical measures for evaluation of pelvic floor muscle function by advanced practice providers. Dr. Newman will refer to her own translation projects and publications in providing examples during her presentation.

Nurses have a responsibility to lead their profession not only in healthcare but also in society as a whole (Quinn, 2020). The idea of Benner’s Novice to Expert theory is important in developing members into these roles of involvement and leadership (Quinn, 2020). In the recent Nursing and Physiotherapy podcast, moderated by Dr. Wallace, it was discussed at length how everyone starts somewhere and likely without any idea of becoming a leader or key thought leader (https://www.ics.org/podcast/46).

Key learning points include: 1) mentoring opportunities in the ICS organization, 2) knowledge of conducting international nursing research including various data collection methods focused on improving continence and associated quality of life, and 3) understanding translational research and its application in practice, and 3) knowledge of evaluating pelvic floor muscle function as part of a pelvic examination in women.

Take home messages: Opportunities exist within the ICS for those interested in starting or expanding continence research, practice, and education as well as active involvement in the society.

References
Harlow BL, Bavendam TG, Palmer MH, Brubaker L, Burgio KL, Lukacz ES, Miller JM, Mueller ER, Newman DK, Rickey LM, Sutcliffe S, Simons-Morton D. The Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Research Consortium: (2018) A transdisciplinary approach toward promoting bladder health and preventing lower urinary tract symptoms in women across the life course. J Womens Health (Larchmt). Mar;27(3):283-289. doi:10.1089/jwh.2017.6566. Epub 2017 Sep 15. PMID:29634445

Quinn B. (2020). Using Benner's model of clinical competency to promote nursing leadership. Nursing management (Harrow, London, England: 1994), 27(2), 33–41. https://doi.org/10.7748/nm.2020.e1911

Suggested Prior Reading/Learning

• Gan, ZS; Newman, DK, Smith, AL (2023) Cross-sectional survey assessment of physical activity level and frequency of performing pelvic floor muscle exercises. Continence. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cont.2023.100715 2772
• Garey A. (2022). Importance of nursing research and nursing continuing professional development. Research in nursing & health, 45(6), 635. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22269
• Kaya, A., & Boz, I. (2019). The development of the Professional Values Model in Nursing. Nursing ethics, 26(3), 914–923. https://doi.org/10.1177/0969733017730685O
• Connell KA, Newman DK, Palmer MH (2023) When did they start? Age of onset of toileting behaviors and urinary cues as reported by older women, Women’s Health Reports, Jul 28, 4(1), 387–399, DOI: 10.1089/whr.2023.0022
• Newman, DK, Lowder, JL, Meister, M, Low, LK, Fitzgerald, CM, Fok, CS, Geynisman-Tan, J., Lukacz, ES., Markland, A., Putnam, S., Rudser, K., Smith, AL, Miller, JM, the Prevention of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (PLUS) Consortium. (2023) Comprehensive pelvic muscle assessment: Developing and testing a dual e-Learning and simulation-based training program. Neurourol Urodyn. June; 42(5): 1036–1054. doi:10.1002/nau.25125.
• Shepherd, A., Newman D.K., Bradway, C., Jost, S., Waddell, D., Mackay, W.G., & Hagen, S. (2023). Impact of practice on quality of Life of those living with an indwelling urinary catheter – An international evaluation. Urologic Nurisng. 4(3), 162-171, 176. https://doi.org/10.7257/2168-4626.2023.43.4.162