Can effective supervised pelvic floor muscle training be provided by primary care nurses? A randomized controlled trial.

Introduction And Hypothesis: To determine whether primary care nurses with no prior experience can, after training, provide effective supervised pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT) by a three-group parallel randomized controlled trial (RCT): primary care nurse, urogynaecology nurse specialist and controls undertaken in 11 primary care/general practices, covering urban and rural settings in SW England. The sample consisted of 337 women with weak pelvic floor muscles (Modified Oxford Score 2 or less) in a randomly sampled survey.

Methods: Following detailed instruction and training, primary care nurses recruited patients who were randomized to PFMT provided by them, a urogynaecology nurse specialist or a 'no training' control group.