Leah Fullegar – Smells, Mess & Presents: The Role of Poo in Care Team Dynamics (Incontinence Care) [Video]

This talk features Leah Fullegar, Research Associate at University of Portsmouth.

Leah shares her experiences and research on the topic of incontinence care in a care home setting. She discusses her personal experiences as a care assistant, senior carer, and dementia unit manager, emphasising the importance of managing emotions and maintaining dignity during incontinence care. Leah’s research focuses on how stigma around incontinence is reproduced or mitigated by care staff. She highlights the skills required in managing incontinence care, such as communication, physical management, and spatial awareness, which are often overlooked in training and guidelines. Leah also discusses the devaluation of care work due to its association with incontinence care. She concludes by emphasising the need for more discussion on incontinence care, team cohesion, acknowledgement of skills, and support for new staff members.

This recording was made at the ENRICH Scotland 2024 Conference recorded on 15th March 2024 at Edinburgh Zoo. The event brought together a wide range of stakeholders to discuss care home research studies taking place across Scotland with the theme ‘Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice’.

Improving the lives and health of people living in care homes is a major priority, but care home residents are generally underrepresented in research studies. Enabling Research in Care Homes (ENRICH) aims to change this by strengthening support for research outside the NHS.

The network brings together care home staff, residents and researchers to facilitate the design and delivery of research, to improve the quality of life, treatments and care for all residents. ENRICH Scotland works closely with NRS Neuroprogressive and Dementia (NRS NDN), NRS Ageing and NRS Primary Care.

For more information on ENRICH Scotland and to get involved visit:

https://www.nhsresearchscotland.org.uk/research-in-scotland/facilities/enrich

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