Conestoga is partnering with TENA brand manufacturer Essity to educate students, personal support workers and nurses in long-term care and retirement homes about continence care.
Conestoga is partnering with Essity to produce training modules for students and health-care professionals about continence care.
The unique approach of the ongoing partnership between Conestoga and Essity is to promote evidence-based and person-centred continence care by guiding unregulated care providers through best practices using case studies focused on individual needs.
“The ultimate goal of the modules developed by the partnership program is to better prepare front-line staff to manage incontinence and deliver better care outcomes at the individual resident level within long-term care and retirement homes,” said the Essity team.
"Using case-study stories, the modules engage the learner by demonstrating real-life examples of individuals living with incontinence, the challenges they face, and how their care can be improved using an evidence-based approach and TENA products.”
Underpinning those stories is science.
“We look at evidence-informed practice, research that's been done, and we start drafting a module,” said Linda Sheiban Taucar, director of Conestoga’s Centre for Health Care Research & Innovation. “We go back and forth with the experts at Essity on revisions and we constantly ask ourselves, ‘How can we make this as comprehensive and impactful to the learner as possible?’ ”
The centre and Essity’s team worked closely on developing the modules, which were put together using the animations and videos by the college’s Online Learning Centre and Media Services team. Along with being available to Conestoga faculty, the modules are available through an online training platform to personal support workers and nurses in long-term care and retirement homes across Canada.
The partnership is not only effective in broadening the understanding about absorbent hygiene products and the TENA brand to manage incontinence, but it also helps the business educate generally about continence care.
“From an Essity perspective, it benefits us because we’re continuously developing new education offerings for our customers who face these challenges in the long-term care sector,” Essity said. “This is very impactful for learners and people in their care across Canada.”
The Centre for Health Care Research & Innovation focuses on strengthening the health-care system with collaborative, community focused research through partnerships with industry, researchers, faculty, and students.