Rectal Cath. Foley bag disposal?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I have a question about proper disposal of a full Foley bag from a rectal cath. off a C Diff. resident. I am a brand new CNA.To make a long story short, I was asked to do things I was unfamiliar with and hadn't fully trained on. My first day working by myself on the job I was asked to do peri care for a resident. I found out when I entered the room that it was a C Diff resident with a rectal cath. When it came time to dispose of the full bag I asked how to do it and was told in a hurried and frustrated manner to double bag it and throw it in the trash. This didn't seem right to me because it was contaminated with C Diff. and I thought even double bagging can get rippped by someone else taking out the garbage not knowing to be careful of the contents... which is exactly what ended up happening, and it left a trail of the material all the way down the hall floor that nobody seemed to notice and was walking on. I was afraid to question the instructions because the nurse seemed irritated by my inexperience. The whole situation didn't feel right to me. Shouldn't that have been considered a biohazard with a proper process of disposal other than double bagged in the trash?

Specializes in Thoracic Cardiovasc ICU Med-Surg.

Wow that sounds really...disgusting.

I'm sure you are nervous with it being your first day. Do you have another CNA that you are paired with that can help or mentor you?

As far as the CDiff..all of our waste is treated like it is contaminated. We don't bag it differently for our cdiff or MRSA or VRE residents. Yes, you can double bag something like a cath or colostomy with extra stool, but other than that..right in the reg trash.

oh...another reason why I don't wear my shoes into the house and take my clothes off asap.

Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatric, Hospice.

People regularly go through the trash at your hospital? Why would anyone do that?

I take my shoes off on the front porch then soak the shoe bottoms with lysol spray before putting them in the closet.

We put them in biohazard (red) containers.

Thank you for the quick replies. I have now turned from confused and frustrated to LMOA! I am done with my orientation and my other partner in the hall has only a little more experience than me. Apparently CNAs are hard to find so we are understaffed and over worked.

Nobody went thruogh the trash, the bag ripped for my partner when he took it out.

We empty ours into the toilet. That's like placing a full foley into a trash bag.

Specializes in Cardiac.

I would put it in a red bio bag and drop in into the red biohazard container in your soiled utility room.

Specializes in psych, addictions, hospice, education.

glove up, empty the contents as much as possible into the toilet, then into the trash and get it out of the room...

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