Health Promotion and Maintenance Q 146
The client with enuresis is being taught regarding bladder retraining. The nurse should advise the client to refrain from drinking after:
A. 1900
B. 1200
C. 1000
D. 0700
Correct Answer: A. 1900
Clients who are being retrained for bladder control should be taught to withhold fluids after about 7 p.m., or 1900. If you go to the toilet too frequently “just in case,” you might end up making the overactive bladder symptoms worse, because the bladder is then “trained” to send a signal that you need to urinate as soon as there is only a small amount of urine in it.
Option B: It is important to go to the toilet at regular intervals so that your bladder gets used to a certain frequency. A voiding (bathroom visit) schedule can be helpful here. Bladder training programs often recommend that, once you have emptied your bladder first thing in the morning and perhaps again after breakfast, you try to keep the intervals between bathroom visits as regular as possible.
Option C: Even if you have a very strong urge to go to the bathroom, it usually only lasts a few minutes and then dies down again. You can practice not emptying your bladder as soon as you feel the need to go. Going to the bathroom calmly and at a slow pace rather than rushing to get there can help too.
Option D: You can try to wait longer between trips to the bathroom, but do so at a slow pace and without any stress. A voiding schedule can be helpful here too. You can use it to remember, for example, that you want to try to wait 5 minutes before emptying your bladder in the first few days, and then keep this up for about half a week. You can then lengthen that “waiting period” to 10, 15 and finally 20 minutes.