What is the best nursing intervention to prevent urinary tract Essay

What is the best nursing intervention to prevent urinary tract infection for older people - Essay Example Very few of the nursing interventions have been studied and proven to be safe and useful to the patient. The paper will mainly focus on the best available evidencesupporting nursing interventions for the elderly that suffer from incontinence and urinary tract infections. Older people will be the main focus because of their vulnerability to infections (Miller, 2008) and the care provided to them. Definitions of both terms will be provided and an analysis of each will be done based on the best nursing interventions. Protocols and policies concerning the prevention of urinary tract infections will be looked at and of major interests will be examined from a range of countries. The subject is very important because it provides an insight into the issues concerning incontinence and urinary tract infection in the elderly adults. It also provides information of the best nursing practices that can be used in the prevention of these conditions and provide a future plan for the control and prevention of such conditions. Incontinence is a very common, disturbing and potentially immobilizing condition in the elderly or geriatric population. Incontinence can be defined as an involuntary loss of the stool or urine in adequate quantities or frequency to comprise a health and/or a social problem (Vieria, 2009). The condition is heterogeneous and it varies in severity from the occasional incidents of trickling small quantities of urine to a continuous urinary incontinence and associated fecal incontinence (Abrass, Kane and Ouslander, 2004). Older persons with incontinence are not usually severely bedridden, demented or in the nursing homes. Many of these patients in the community and in the institutions are ambulatory and their mental functioning is good (Abrass, Kane and Ouslander, 2004). Incontinence has impact on the self-esteem of the patient and there is the usual fear of soiling or wetting during a sexual intercourse and this has a