The specific aim of this research is to determine the effects of UNIS, a nursing expert system, on the nursing care of patients with urinary incontinence in a nursing home. UNIS was designed to increase a person's knowledge of urinary incontinence and to improve the quantity and quality of careplans generated for the assessment and treatment of patients. Urinary incontinence is a major problem for the elderly, particularly in the nursing home. Providing expert nurse consultations with UNIS could offer a new technological approach to meeting the existing knowledge deficits of professional caregivers to those with urinary incontinence. Two parallel studies will be performed with incontinent patients and nurse caregivers. The frequency of incontinent episodes, the nurse;s knowledge and careplan development will be measured repeatedly throughout the study. The acceptability of the system by nurses will be surveyed. consultations with UNIS will be monitored. The long term objective of this project is to explore the potential for developing expert system application in several areas of the nursing home. the integration of expert systems in a nursing home information system could provide cost effective ongoing expert consultation for nurses and other health care personnel, administrators and state and federal reviewers.
