Continence courses
This page provides a list of continence educational courses. To find a course in your State / Territory, follow the links below.
Please send an email to info@continence.org.au if you would like to add a course to this list.
National
Continence Foundation accredited continence courses
The Benchmarque Group
The Continence Foundation of Australia has partnered with The Benchmarque Group Pty Limited to register three nationally accredited courses in continence management.
The Benchmarque Group, a registered training organisation with significant experience in delivering health professional qualifications, provides the partnership with the necessary expertise for operating under the Australian Qualifications and Training Framework. The courses offer competency based training and the additional benefit of formal qualifications.
The courses are:
- a short course in continence awareness and promotion
- Certificate II in continence promotion and care
- Graduate certificate in continence promotion and management
These courses are suitable for a range of people, including individuals, carers, personal care attendant's, pharmacy assistants, nurses, allied health professionals and Indigenous health workers.
To register your interest, email courses@benchmarquegroup.com.au and include the word 'continence' in the subject field.
Read more about the courses here
Continence education TV series
Rural Health Education Foundation
Television based health education for doctors, pharmacists, nurses and allied health professionals. Topics include:
- improving bowel continence
- continence: children and adolescents
- continence and men's health
- continence issues: the role of the pharmacist
- continence and women's health
- continence and aged care
- continence and the general practitioner, and
- continence: what is it all about?
Read more about the programs here
Queensland
Continence advisors course
Blue Care
This continuing education course will provide registered nurses with the opportunity to:
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explore current issues and practices in continence care within various settings, and
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prepare for the role of continence nurse advisor in the area of continence care.
Continence awareness course
Blue Care
This 4 hour workshop is designed to provide basic knowledge in continence care. It is aimed at all health professionals and those with a Certificate III in aged care. On completion of modules, participants should be able to apply the theoretical framework of incontinence and practical management approaches to provide quality care to clients with incontinence.
Continence promotion course
Blue Care
This 2 day workshop is designed for registered nurses and health professionals to update their knowledge and skills in continence care. On completion of modules, participants should be able to apply the theoretical framework of incontinence and practical management approaches to provide quality care to clients with incontinence.
Continence management and health training short course
CABB Australia
CABB Australia Pty Ltd provides training programs designed to enhance employee’s understanding of the effects and management of bowel and bladder incontinence and to promote continence.
Health and aged care: continence management short course
Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE
This one day short course run at the Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE is designed for front line workers in the disability and aged care industry. This course covers incontinence of patients, assessment of patients, patient management and continence aids.
South Australia
Continence nurse advisor - post graduate program
Flinders University
The continence nurse advisor stream is designed to prepare registered nurses to practice as continence nurse practitioners. The stream traces the development of continence across the human lifespan, and developments in nursing assessment and management of incontinence (urinary and faecal). It offers negotiated clinical practicum which is assessed against the national competencies for continence nurse practitioners.
Nursing for continence - module 1
Flinders University
Module 1 is a program designed for registered and enrolled nurses who wish to increase knowledge, practice and diagnostic skills in continence nursing. The program represents the merging of academic and clinical aspirations in the effort to promote continence in the wider community. The combination of academic and clinical expertise has resulted in a diverse, evidence-based program that can be applied in many settings. This program will appeal to registered and enrolled nurses working in paediatrics, women's health, midwifery, acute care, in the community and aged care. Module 1 uses a case study approach to explore legal issues, communication, critical thinking and clinical reasoning, all of which are necessary skills for the assessment and management of urinary and anal incontinence and constipation. However the focus of incontinence in this module is urinary. Faecal incontinence and a specific focus on life span issues for urinary and faecal incontience are included in Module 2.
Nursing for continence - module 2
Flinders University
Module 2 is a program designed for registered and enrolled nurses, to build and consolidate the knowledge they developed in Module 1 to enable them to promote continence of urine in their practice setting, as well as to develop knowledge, practice and diagnostic skills in faecal incontinence. The speakers are predominantly expert nurse clinicians, with input from pharmacy and medicine. The main focus of the module is assessment and management of anal incontinence and constipation. Sexuality, catheter care, surgical and pharmaceutical management of faecal and urinary incontinence is also considered. A lifespan approach to urinary and faecal continence practice issues in relation to children, females, males and the frail aged is utilised. This program will appeal to registered and enrolled nurses working in paediatrics, women's health, midwifery, acute care, in the community and aged care.
Victoria
Certificate III in aged care
Centre for Adult Education (CAE)
CAE Courses Victoria offers a Certificate III aged care workers course. The course contains a subject on continence management.
Certificate in stomal therapy nursing
Mayfield Education
This revised course has been endorsed by the Australian Association of Stomal Therapy Nursing. The course prepares the Division 1 nurse for the STN role, adopting an active role in stomal therapy, wound management and contemporary management.
Certificates and diplomas in urological and continence nursing - distance education
La Trobe University
This course will focus on preparing nurses for advanced practise as specialist urology and continence nurses. This course meets the needs of the health care system by addressing the problem of the shortage of skilled nurses within the field of urological and continence nursing. This course is only available via distance education.
Continence - catheterising with confidence
Royal District Nursing Service
This one day workshop is designed to prepare nurses to perform evidence based urethral or suprapubic catheterisation.
Continence management strategies - short course
Mayfield Education
This 3-day course is designed for health carers, including personal care attendants, all registered nurses, allied health staff, and aged care supervisors and managers. The content of this course includes:
- causes of incontinence
- identifiying methods of prevention
- practical aspects of managing continence problems
- use of appropriate interventions and devising a continence program
- correct use of aids and appliances, and
- networks and resources.
Continence: using contemporary knowledge to enhance client care
Royal District Nursing Service
This four-day course has been designed to develop nurses' knowledge and skills in the care of clients with urinary and faecal incontinence.
Master of physiotherapy by coursework (women's health and pelvic floor physiotherapy)
The University of Melbourne
The Master by coursework enables qualified and experienced clinicians to broaden and deepen their theoretical and clinical skill in the area of continence and women's health. The course recognizes the need to adopt principles of adult learning and it emphasizes the importance of facilitating graduates to develop independent, self-directed and critical philosophies in the field of continence and women's health.
Postgraduate certificate in physiotherapy (pelvic floor physiotherapy)
The University of Melbourne
This course aims to further enhance physiotherapists' knowledge of epidemiology, health issues related to incontinence, and the anatomy, applied anatomy, physiology and pathology relevant for the assessment and treatment of incontinence. Diagnostic techniques, prevention and intervention strategies including exercise, electrotherapy, biofeedback and continence devices will be addressed. Course content will include specific issues related to adult female and male continence, ano-rectal continence, incontinence in children and in the older population. The course will require active participation by students in physical assessment and supervised clinical practice.
Western Australia
Continence - post graduate certificate
Hollywood Private Hospital
This course aims to promote awareness of the unique role of the continence nurse consultant (advisor) in the health care team by providing a scientific knowledge base from which to practice this nursing speciality in accordance with the national competencies for continence nurse advisors.
Postgraduate programs in clinical physiotherapy (continence and women's health major)
Curtin University of Technology
Through its graduate certificate, postgraduate diploma and master's level courses, the continence and women's health stream of postgraduate study in clinical physiotherapy provides an opportunity for physiotherapists to become expert clinicians in women's health physiotherapy, and its related areas of practice. The program will develop clinical skills in the assessment and management of conditions that are unique to women, more common in women, more serious in women or require special interventions in women. In particular, participants will develop expertise in the management of pelvic floor dysfunction and its many presentations - bladder and bowel dysfunction, disorders of pelvic organ and pelvic girdle support, sexual dysfunction, and pelvic pain.
Short courses in continence and women's health
Curtin University of Technology
The School of physiotherapy offers 14 short courses in the area of continence and women's health, in conjunction with the postgraduate program in clinical physiotherapy.
