Foley Irrigation

[jamminworld]

At the hospital I am currently at we are allowed to irrigate foley's without an order however I was told that this was not an independent nursing action. I attempted to do an online search but wasn't able to come up with an answer So I'm looking to you all to help. Thanks in advance!!

[klone, MSN, RN]

For low uo in our unit the first thing we do make sure the tubing is straight then irrigate. remenber irrigating a foley is a sterile procedure. you will need an irrigation tray with a bulb syringe, sterile gloves, new bottle of sterile ns,a 2x2, a sterile towel, and a pair of hemastats. first wash your hands and put on nonsterile gloves, open the irrigation tray and the bottle with the sterile ns, take the 2x2 and wrap it around the foley then clamp with the hemastats. take the foley apart from the drainage bag and lay the end on the sterile towel, put on your sterile gloves (it's your choice which hand who want to be the dirty one). with the "dirty" hand fill the irriagtion bottle with ns taking care not to touch the bulb syringe. now with you clean hand fill the bulb syringe from the irrigation bottle. with the dirty hand pick up the end of the foley and with your clean hand place the tip of the bulb syringe into the end of the foley tight. now with your dirty hand unclamp the hemestats and try to flush the foley. if it doesn't flush you need a new foley and watch out when you pull the old one. if it flushes easily connect the foley back to the drainage bad and watch how much you get back. if you are just checking to see if the foley is patent there is an easier way. Access the sampling port on the drainage bag with a 10 -20 cc syringe while clamping off the drainage bag below the port and try to flush. In my icu, flushing a foley is expected.

Wow, that seems awfully complicated. The bold is how I do it.

[enigmaticorange]

I flush a foley anytime I am concerned with output -along with a bladder scan, repositioning, and deflation/reinflation of the balloon. Ive only seen a doctor have a fit about a foley once. A pt with Hx of prostate/bladder CA had his foley removed and reinserted by a nurse who saw clots and removed/reinserted a foley instead of flushing. This caused a large amount of urethral trauma and bleeding/clots. I ended up flushing that pt Q4H just to keep the line patent.

[steelydanfan]

New nurse here. So can anyone please explained to me in details [if possible] how do you flush a foley catheter.

I have searched the internet and even my nursing books, but I cannot find the steps you take to flush a foley catheter.

Thanks.

Well, THIS IS a sad state of affairs for nursing education, no?

[steelydanfan]

Well, THIS IS a sad state of affairs for nursing education, no?

What I did not clarify in my last post was that the poster wrote that after a search on the Internet AND EVEN her NURSING TEXTS....

Great.... hitting the boooks as a last resort....

[cherrybreeze, ADN, RN]

What I did not clarify in my last post was that the poster wrote that after a search on the Internet AND EVEN her NURSING TEXTS....

Great.... hitting the boooks as a last resort....

Pretty sure that's not what the student meant (or the person that responded to it). It's a sad state of nursing education being that the answer could not be FOUND in a textbook....

[Music in My Heart]

I view irrigating a Foley as analogous to flushing a finicky PIV and certainly within the nursing scope of practice. Walking in to a new facility, though, it would probably be wise to ask somebody just to be sure.

[BluegrassRN]

For low uo in our unit the first thing we do make sure the tubing is straight then irrigate. remenber irrigating a foley is a sterile procedure. you will need an irrigation tray with a bulb syringe, sterile gloves, new bottle of sterile ns,a 2x2, a sterile towel, and a pair of hemastats. first wash your hands and put on nonsterile gloves, open the irrigation tray and the bottle with the sterile ns, take the 2x2 and wrap it around the foley then clamp with the hemastats. take the foley apart from the drainage bag and lay the end on the sterile towel, put on your sterile gloves (it's your choice which hand who want to be the dirty one). with the "dirty" hand fill the irriagtion bottle with ns taking care not to touch the bulb syringe. now with you clean hand fill the bulb syringe from the irrigation bottle. with the dirty hand pick up the end of the foley and with your clean hand place the tip of the bulb syringe into the end of the foley tight. now with your dirty hand unclamp the hemestats and try to flush the foley. if it doesn't flush you need a new foley and watch out when you pull the old one. if it flushes easily connect the foley back to the drainage bad and watch how much you get back. if you are just checking to see if the foley is patent there is an easier way. Access the sampling port on the drainage bag with a 10 -20 cc syringe while clamping off the drainage bag below the port and try to flush. In my icu, flushing a foley is expected.

Seriously, until the last two sentences, you were scaring the crap out of me. I thought I was a true eff up and I had been doing it wrong all this time!

[cmcer1995]

I recently started doing Home Health Care and I have a patient with a foley catheter that I care for and was researching how to perform catheter irrigation if necessary. It's been 24 years for me not doing much bedside nursing after being a psych. RN in a LTC psych. facility. I found that on line there is information available from an unlikely site on EHow Health http://www.ehow.com/how_5647289_irrigate-foley-catheters.html which I thought sounded complete and correct from my past nursing school days. See what you think of how the proceedure is explained and even the tips sound appropriate including one about irrigation solution temperature which no one else mentioned.