Are transfer forceps necessary to be used in foley catheterization?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Long Term Care, Medicine, High Acuity, Informatics.

I have a kit here from Med-RX, which contains the first transfer forcep once you open the first flap of the kit. Now if I were to use this forcep, how would I use this? I'm assuming it's to open the rest of the flaps, but what else? And then of course there is a second forcep in the tray itself (which I think is to be used for peri care prior to insertion).

It's kind of like this, without the iodine and catheter itself. It also includes the syringe for balloon.

I have been trying to find similar trays used on Youtube but I couldn't find anything similar.

I have been out of acute care practice for 3 years, having started in residential. But I just got hired to acute thank goodness, so I've been reading and watching a lot of different skills.

Specializes in ER.

Those first forceps are for you to use with your unsterile hands. Open the kit fully, and rearrange the sterile supplies to your satisfaction. Then put on the sterile gloves before you do the procedure.

The first forceps would be for opening the wrapper, although I would think it would be easier to do so with your hands since the outer inch of the wrapper is not sterile. I don't believe that you could use those first forceps for arranging your supplies since once you touch it with your non-sterile hand it is no longer sterile. I am guessing the kit has cotton with a package of betadine, the second forcep in the kit would be used to fluff the cotton and use it when providing peri care before catherization so that you can keep the hand you are working with sterile.

Specializes in Emergency Department.

When opening those kits, if done correctly, the 1 inch border of the wrapper is considered non-sterile once the outer wrapper is opened and the contents remain sterile. The kits we have at work do not have the transfer forceps and instead rely on good technique to maintain sterility. It's quite easy to break sterility. What makes matters worse for me is that my hands are large enough that I cannot use the "universal" sized gloves that are usually included in the kits, so I have to retrieve a set of sterile gloves that do fit.

I've never had a foley kit that included forceps. I literally wouldn't know what to do with them haha

I've never had a foley kit that included forceps. I literally wouldn't know what to do with them haha

The kits they had us use in school had the forceps on the inside. Personally I prefer the kits with the swabs tends to be a little less messy and a little less fuss. However you work with what is supplied. I prefer to use separate sterile gloves that are not included in the kit. I have the opposite problem usually and the universal gloves are usually a little too big :)

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