Our Nurses. Our Future: Emma Bailey, Senior Continence Nurse

Emma shares why working for the Continence Service is very rewarding.

Hi, I am Emma. I currently work as a Senior Continence Nurse (Band 6) for NCH&C and predominantly work in the West. I have been in my current role for the past 14 years.

I qualified as an Enrolled Nurse General (ENG) in 1989 after completing my nurse training at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn. In 1999, I was seconded to complete conversion from Enrolled Nurse to Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN).

I initially started working in care home settings for the Continence Service, providing advice and support to care staff regarding promoting continence and assessing residents for containment products. As I have progressed in my role, I have gained vast experience regarding bowel and bladder health and now work in a nurse-led clinic assessing and treating patients.

My role is very much face-to-face and provides a complete holistic approach to patients’ needs. I have found my experience as a mental health nurse to be invaluable when treating and assessing patients. Patients have often suffered in silence with embarrassing bladder and bowel problems that have left them feeling worthless or ashamed.

We are very much an empowering service, providing advice, treatments, and support, allowing patients to engage in self-management to enhance their quality of life and improve their symptoms or enable them to manage them more effectively. Bladder and bowel issues are often underestimated; however, they have a huge impact on quality of life both physically and mentally.

Working for the Continence Service is very rewarding, especially when you see patients’ symptoms improving and how this has changed their lives, allowing them to get on with life.

Promoting our service within NCH&C, primary care, and among caregivers is paramount to me as a nurse; the service has so much to offer. It is so much more than just pads! I feel the Continence service encourages empowerment and promotes patients to take ownership of their condition and treatment.

Being a nurse is about having a passion and commitment to improve patients’ quality of life. That’s why I work for the Continence Service.

The best advice I can give to someone starting in nursing is to remember that fundamental care is key and always look at patients holistically, paying attention to both physical and mental wellbeing, rather than just the illness that presents.