Advanced urology nursing practice

Abstract

Urology nursing has developed as a specialty over the past few decades in response to several factors, workload demands being a prime reason. Nurses are taking on additional roles and activities including procedures such as cystoscopy and prostate biopsy, and running nurse-led clinics for a variety of urological conditions. Audits of advanced urological nursing practice have shown this care to be of a high standard and investigative procedures performed by these nurses match the diagnostic quality of existing services. Professional urological nursing organizations support the professional needs of these nurses, but the provision of education and training for advanced practice activities remains an unaddressed need. A range of confusing advanced urology nursing titles exists, and uncertainty regarding the roles and scope of practice for these nurses remains a concern. Acceptance and support from medical colleagues is required for the success of advanced urological nursing practice, but opinions on these roles remain divided.

Advanced Practice Nursing in Pediatric Urology: experience report in the Federal District

“…The practice of the pediatric nurse with expertise in Pediatric Urology is prominent in the multi-professional team, since they act as agents that enhance preventive and therapeutic actions. In addition, the AP nurse is the member of the health team capable of delivering a holistic care that meets the needs of the child/adolescent with LUTS and BBD, guiding the nursing assistance with a care perspective centered on the child and the family (4)(5) and based on principles of advocacy.…”

“…Due to the variety of problems related to the dynamics of urinary storage and voiding, nurses working in Pediatric Urology can assist children with severe urogenital malformations, who require several surgical interventions to stabilize their urological condition. In addition, nurses' practice in the clinical management of children and adolescents with bladder and bowel dysfunctions -such as daytime or nighttime urinary incontinence (enuresis), intestinal constipation, encopresis, and urinary retention -is mainly based on behavioral interventions such as bladder control training and changes in the habits and lifestyle of the child and family, sometimes including training for complex techniques such as clean intermittent catheterization (4)(5) . Despite the current lack of legal regulation in the country, Dias et al (6) report the experience of a pediatric oncology service in São Paulo, based on an American model of Clinical Nurse Specialist.…”

“…The care provided in this service is based on four essential pillars: qualified assistance, education/coaching (patient, family, professionals), research and management. Therefore, Pediatric Urology Nursing can also be seen as a specialty that fits very well in the APN model, mainly because most urological interventions are based on child and familycentered care and aligned with PHC principles (4) . Thus, this article aims to describe the creation and implementation of the extension program called: Advanced Practice Nursing in Pediatric Urology, linked to the Nursing Department of the University of Brasília.…”

Just where is urological nursing advancing to?

“…As sources in the literature show, across the world we urology nurses continue to struggle to know what titles to use in naming ourselves (Thompson et al, 2007;Albaugh, 2012;Crowe, 2014) and in Europe particularly our silence on the 'Advancing versus Advanced/Specialist versus Specializing' debate, as it applies to urological nursing practice, is as deafening as it is concerning. As sources in the literature show, across the world we urology nurses continue to struggle to know what titles to use in naming ourselves (Thompson et al, 2007;Albaugh, 2012;Crowe, 2014) and in Europe particularly our silence on the 'Advancing versus Advanced/Specialist versus Specializing' debate, as it applies to urological nursing practice, is as deafening as it is concerning.…”

“…Like Alice, we also seem confused about where we need to go. As sources in the literature show, across the world we urology nurses continue to struggle to know what titles to use in naming ourselves (Thompson et al, 2007;Albaugh, 2012;Crowe, 2014) and in Europe particularly our silence on the 'Advancing versus Advanced/Specialist versus Specializing' debate, as it applies to urological nursing practice, is as deafening as it is concerning. As if this were not enough, a commonly agreed patient-centred, educational curriculum for urological nurse preparation and role development, incorporating philosophy, policy and standards on critically important issues including levels of disease knowledge, urological nursing care responses, research, management and service development, remains glaringly absent.…”