Azadeh, Wickham, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC, Urology, received a two-year, $4,450 Patient Care Services (PCS) Research Grant.
Azadeh’s project is “Clean Intermittent Catheterization Determinants and Caregiver Adherence in Pediatric Patients with Spinal Dysraphism and Spinal Cord Injury: A Mixed Methods Study.”
As Azadeh explains, clean intermittent catheterization (CIC) is the standard of care for treating neurogenic bladder, the most common bladder dysfunction in children diagnosed with spinal dysraphism and spinal cord injury. Protocols for clean intermittent catheterization are highly complex and create psychological, emotional, and financial demands on the caregivers who must deliver this treatment to their children. The steps needed to follow are poorly described and involve starting, execution, and persistence by the caregiver.
When CIC steps aren’t followed properly, renal insufficiency, incontinence, and urinary tract infections increase.
The aim of this study is to describe the rate of clean intermittent catheterization adherence and correlate determinants to clean intermittent catheterization adherence in caregivers of pediatric patients with spinal dysraphism and spinal cord injury.
Azadeh and her team will recruit a random sample of 60 adult caregivers from Children’s Mercy Kansas City. She will provide them with two surveys and will interview 10 of the 50. The questionnaire will measure the determinants, and an Intermittent Catheterization Adherence Scale will measure caregiver protocol adherence. Azadeh and her team will interview caregivers to establish their perceptions of determinants.
“This will be the first step in developing and testing interventions to address determinants to clean intermittent catheterization, improve adherence, and ultimately improve pediatric outcomes,” wrote Azadeh.