Introduction: urinary incontinence (UI) is a phenomenon with high prevalence in hospitalized elderly patients, affecting up to 70% of patients requiring long term care. However, despite the discomfort it causes and its association with functional decline, it seems to be given insufficient attention by nurses in geriatric care. Objectives: to assess the prevalence of urinary incontinence in geriatric patients at admission and the level of nurse involvement as characterized by the explicit documentation of UI diagnosis, prescription of nursing intervention, or nursing actions related to UI in the patient’s record. Methods: cross-sectional retrospective chart review. One hundred cases were randomly selected from patients aged sixty-five or older who had been admitted to the geriatric ward of a university hospital. The variables examined included: total and continence scores on the Functional Independence Measure (FIM), socio-demographic variables, presence of a nursing diagnosis, nursing prescription, or documentation of a nursing intervention related to UI in the patient’s medical record. Results: the prevalence of urinary incontinence was 72 % and UI was positively correlated with a low FIM score, with age, and with having awaiting placement status. Of the examined cases, nursing diagnosis of UI was only documented in 1.4 % of cases, nursing interventions were prescribed in 54 % of cases, and at least one nursing intervention was performed in 72 % of cases. The vast majority of the interventions were palliative. Discussion: the results on the prevalence of UI are similar to those reported in several other studies. This is also the case in relation to nursing interventions. In this study, people with UI were given the same care regardless of their FIM score, age, or gender. One limitation of this study is that it is retrospective and therefore dependent on the quality of the nursing documentation. Conclusion: this study is novel because it examines UI in relation to nursing interventions. It demonstrates that despite a high prevalence of UI, the general level of concern for nurses remains relatively low. Individualized care is desirable and clinical innovations must be developed for primary and secondary prevention of UI during hospitalization.