"Education of students within the medical and health sciences - conservative treatment of pelvic floor muscle dysfunctions" - is a project supporting students of medical sciences and health sciences, especially students of physiotherapy, nursing and midwifery, and the medical community, resulting from the health needs of an aging society in Europe. The subject of the project was undertaken by three partner universities: Opole Medical School (Poland), Università degli Studi G.D'Annunzio Chieti Pescara (Italy), Universidad de Cádiz (Spain). Pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) including faecal and urinary incontinence, sexual dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse or the presence of chronic pelvic pain affects 25% of adult women worldwide, significantly reducing their quality of life. The aging of the population and the related predicted increase in the number of women reporting pelvic floor dysfunctions over the coming years lead to a need of better understanding of the problem, the rapid detection of risk factors causing PFD and the search for effective methods of conservative treatment. The most common symptom of PFD is urinary incontinence (UI), which is difficult to estimate because of its intimate nature. It is estimated that 5-69% of women and 1-39% of men have at least one episode of incontinence or loss of urine over a period of 12 months. The estimated number of people with UI worldwide in 2018 will be around 420 million - 300 million women and 120 million men. The aim of the project is to develop by an international team of experts a subject in the field of conservative treatment in dysfunctions of pelvic muscles based on the principles of Evidence Based Medicine, and to develop the international textbook dealing with the subject of PFD. The introduction of a new subject will supplement the knowledge among students and future medical staff in the field of manual therapy in pelvic floor dysfunctions, which will contribute to their increased attractiveness on the labor market. On the basis of an international project, partner universities will introduce to the compulsory curriculum the subject and syllabuses of "Conservative treatment of pelvic floor dysfunctions", which will contain a number of standards characterizing the programmed subject. An additional advantage of the project is the involvement of physiotherapists, nurses, and midwives from three countries. It gives the chance to develop the right treatment and prophylaxis based on cooperation within the therapeutic team. At the same time, the curriculum which will be developed will be modified depending on the field of study, so that it will take into account the specifics of individual medical professions. An additional advantage of this project will be the unification of manual techniques in the preventive treatment of pelvic floor muscle dysfunctions manifested by the UI and the unification of research methodology, so the future articles will enrich the literature on this issue. A textbook will touch upon a problem such as anatomical bases, diagnostics in pelvic floor dysfunctions, palpation assessment, bioelectric activity assessment and passive rigidity of pelvic floor muscles, conservative treatment, manual therapies, physical therapies, electrostimulation and magnetic field stimulation as well as issues related to behavioral therapy. The durability and effectiveness of the project will be ensured in the long-term perspective, after completion of the project. Therefore, as part of the activities in the project, it was pointed out that the implementation of the project will be an element starting the long-term strategy of supporting competences in the university. The results of intellectual work will be directly used by the universities implementing the project, they will also be used after its completion, in e.g. unified systems of medical care, in the development of the techniques of conservative treatment of pelvic floor /muscle dysfunction, reduction of the duration of therapy, reduction of costs incurred by the patient and institutions providing health care, increasing the attractiveness of students on the national and national labor market, by acquiring competences in the field of conservative medical therapy of pelvic floor muscle dysfunctions , a common area of classes at partner universities, allowing the free exchange of teaching staff, specialists and students in order to complete part of their studies, or apprenticeships.
"Education of students within the medical and health sciences - conservative treatment of pelvic floor muscle dysfunctions" - was a project supporting students of medical sciences and health sciences, especially students of physiotherapy, nursing and midwifery, and the medical community, resulting from the health needs of an aging society in Europe. The subject of the project was undertaken by three partner universities: Opole Medical School (Poland), Università degli Studi G.D'Annunzio Chieti Pescara (Italy), Universidad de Cádiz (Spain). After the consolidation of Opole Medical School and the University of Opole in July 2020, the project was conducted by the University of Opole. Pelvic floor dysfunction (PFD) including faecal and urinary incontinence, sexual dysfunction, pelvic organ prolapse or the presence of chronic pelvic pain affects 25% of adult women worldwide, significantly reducing their quality of life. The aging of the population and the related predicted increase in the number of women reporting pelvic floor dysfunctions over the coming years lead to a need of better understanding of the problem, the rapid detection of risk factors causing PFD and the search for effective methods of conservative treatment. The most common symptom of PFD is urinary incontinence (UI), which is difficult to estimate because of its intimate nature. It is estimated that 5-69% of women and 1-39% of men have at least one episode of incontinence or loss of urine over a period of 12 months. The aim of the project was to develop by an international team of experts a subject in the field of conservative treatment in dysfunctions of pelvic muscles, based on the principles of Evidence Based Medicine, and to develop the international textbook dealing with the subject of PFD. The introduction of a new subject will supplement the knowledge among students and future medical staff in the field of manual therapy in pelvic floor dysfunctions, which will contribute to their increased attractiveness on the labor market. On the basis of an international project, partner universities introduced to the compulsory curriculum the subject and syllabuses of "Conservative treatment of pelvic floor dysfunctions", which contains a number of standards characterizing the programmed subject. An additional advantage of the project was the involvement of physiotherapists, nurses, and midwives from three countries. It gave the chance to develop an adequate treatment and prophylaxis based on cooperation within therapeutic teams. At the same time, the developed curriculum has been modified depending on the field of study, so that it took into account the specifics of individual medical professions.An additional advantage of this project was the unification of manual techniques in the preventive treatment of pelvic floor muscle dysfunctions manifested by the UI and the unification of research methodology. Articles written on the basis of the project enriched the literature on this issue. A textbook is touching upon a problem such as anatomical bases, diagnostics in pelvic floor dysfunctions, palpation assessment, bioelectric activity assessment and passive rigidity of pelvic floor muscles, conservative treatment, manual therapies, physical therapies, electrostimulation and magnetic field stimulation as well as issues related to behavioral therapy. The durability and effectiveness of the project is ensured in the long-term perspective, after completion of the project.