Empowering SCI patients to get their dignity back

SCI Care: What Really Matters

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For this issue, we have collaborated with our educational partner Wellspect®. Rachael Chapple, the Global Urology Product Manager & Clinical Education Manager for Wellspect steps in as host joined by ISCoS President Prof Ruth Marshall and guest specialist Carina Andersson a nurse and urotherapist.

Listen to this wonderful discussion as both Prof Marshall and Carina Andersson share their wealth of experience from over the past 40 years and the changes they have witnessed in the practice of SCI patients covering efficient bladder management, the importance of keeping and ensuring a patients integrity and dignity and sex after an SCI injury.

'Since I began to work with SCI patients the surgery has improved and with improvised spine surgery the length of stay in hospital had reduced. Previously, the patient was immobilised for 3 months to heal the fracture, and the most intensive training was on hold, now the training can begin much earlier, of course that’s depending on the level of injury and the need in care in the Intensive Care unit.'- Carina Andersson

Carina Andersson is a nurse and urotherapist, working in a spinal cord injury department since 1986. The care unit at the University Hospital in the north of Sweden has 8 beds for SCI and traumatic damaged patients. She has participated in several of the international (ISCOS) and Nordic (NOSCOS) meetings as well as having an active part in the Nordic Spinal Cord Injury Registration (NSCIR) where all the SCI patients are registered. This register contains a lot of data from the acute phase as well as follow up period and contains data on quality of life, bladder and bowel management, ASIA-scores, hand function, sexuality etc with the purpose of aiding research of different aspects. Her work is concentrated on the patient's bladder, bowel and skin problems. Since being both a nurse and urotherapist she follows a lot of MS patients as well as adults with spina bifida.

Rachael Chapple works for Wellspect and has a dual role as a Global Urology Product Manager & Clinical Education Manager and lives in the UK. Rachael originally qualified and worked as a Nurse, before joining the company over 25 years ago and has since had various sales & marketing roles and responsibilities within Wellspect. Combining product knowledge with clinical education helps to ensure we are continually striving to understand and meet the needs of our customers.

Special thanks to Wellspect for their support and partnership.

Thank you for listening.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes or would like information on becoming an ISCoS member, please email [e-mail]. If you would like to register for the 60th Anniversary Annual Scientific Meeting this September, click here

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The opinions of our host and guests are their own; ISCoS does not endorse any individual viewpoints, given products or companies.

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The SCI Care: What Really Matters podcast aims to provide valuable insights and the most up-to-date information for those providing care to people with spinal cord injury (SCI) worldwide. The vision of the International Spinal Cord Society (ISCoS) is to "facilitate healthy and inclusive lives for people with spinal cord injury or dysfunction globally".

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