Continence is an area that requires many community nurses to prescribe from the Nurse Practitioner’s Formulary to promote good patient care and appropriate service delivery. Recently in west Berkshire, with the full support of GPs, the continence advisory service has taken over the non-medical prescribing of all continence products, with the aim of providing a safe, cost-effective and timely service. This initiative is aimed at changing the way continence prescriptions are issued to patients. As well as examining the problems of bladder dysfunction in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), this first article of a two-part series, looks at the background to MS and bladder problems, as well as focusing on treatments such as clean intermittent self-catheterisation (CISC). The second part of the series will feature a case study looking at the management of a patient with MS and bladder dysfunction.