CoNSA News

National Ageing Research Institute (NARI) proudly announces the launch of an innovative online course 'Caregiving, Dementia and Incontinence'.

Many people living with dementia experience difficulties with bladder and/or bowel function and control.

Continence issues significantly impact the quality of life for the person and their carer.

The free online course has been developed with the input of people living with dementia, carers, and health professionals.

It provides information about the physical and psychosocial aspects of toileting, promoting continence, and managing incontinence.

No prior experience or qualifications are required to participate.

This free course will run twice in 2022. The first course will open on 1 August, and be repeated on 17 October 2022. 

Read more, or register for this free, online course

Are you a nurse providing pessary care for women with pelvic organ prolapse?  

A pessary can provide instant and long-term relief of prolapse symptoms, but pessary services may be hard for many women to access, and practitioner-training is not widely available. 

We invite you to participate in this 5-minute online survey, which will provide information about pessary services, where they are, which health care practitioners provide them and what the providers’ training needs are.

This is much-needed, novel research, involving health care practitioners providing pessary care Australia-wide.

Your response will help us to:

 - map current pessary services and identify service gaps.

 - recommend where resources and training should be directed, so that women have ready access to quality pessary services, regardless of where they live.

The participant information sheet is embedded within the questionnaire for further information about the study background. 

We look forward to hearing from you, although your response will remain anonymous. 

For more information, please feel free to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) has approved this study HRE2022-0325

Access the questionnaire here

The Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) released the

update to the Preventing and Controlling Infection Standard of the

National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards - Second Edition in May 2021.

Access the May 2021 Update

CoNSA has released its statement:

CoNSA statement about the role of the Nurse Continence Specialist in providing continence care to National Disability Insurance Scheme Clients

to assist Nurse Continence Specialist justify their choice of billing code for NDIS services.

View the article about the CoNSA NDIS Statement

The Australian Digital Health Agency has released the National Digital Health Capability Framework.

I think it’s important for us as leaders in the health industry to have a common strategy going forward in how we

deal with digital health, how we understand digital health, how the different professions input into digital health.

(Tania Dufty, Australian College of Nursing)

Read more about the Digital Health Capability Framwork for nurses and midwives.

The International Council of Nurses has released Guidelines on Advanced Practice Nursing 2020.

These will have relevance to Nurse Continence Specialists.

Access the ICN Guidelines on Advanced Practice Nursing

Today the ACN has launched the ACN COVID-19 Disclosure Portal where health care workers can anymously report concerns about COVID-19.

ACN will review this information, and if appropriate, raise concerns with relevant agencies or government.

Access the ACN COVID-19 Disclosure Portal