Urine Sample from Foley

Ok, horror story coming up. A few years ago, I was taking a CSU from a foley via the port with a needle and syringe. It was 7am, and I was nearly finishing my night shift. Anyway, in I go, aspirate, remove syringe and needle and to this day I do not know how I did it, but managed to stab myself in the wrist with the dirty needle. The needle must have gone in about 1cm as I was left with a nasty bruise in my wrist.

Moral of this story - leave the CSU for the fresh day staff!!!

I also have always drawn it from the port on the tubing closest to the pt, but...have always wondered while I am standing there waiting to get enough urine to collect why you could not just collect the urine out of the bag especially for things such a drug screen. It makes sense to me that if you were collecting the urine for a UA then you would want it to come out of the port especially for OB pts who are bleeding, but wuld collecting it out of the bag really be that different if not better than a clean catch because it would be minus the vaginal bleeding that inevitably ends up in the specimen cup no matter how careful they are?

in the past, instructors did teach us to use a needle to pierce the catheter, saying it would reseal itself, but more recently there are ports

Can the urine in the drainage bag be used for creatinine clearance test (24 hr urine collection)?

Just keep the bag on ice. I usually fill a plastic basin with ice and place the bag in.

Yes, you just have to keep the bag iced.

i know u have gathered replies already but may i just add as it is most likely the same with what the rest shared...cleanest way? - use swab cotton, screw in syringe not pierce the syringe as it can be a portal entry for microorganisms to fester...

Hello everyone,

just wanting to find out what others use to clamp the Foley catheter for urine samples and how long do you clamp the tubing for.

Thanks

At my hospital, the policy states to clamp the foley for 15-30 minutes before collecting a urine sample. The clamp we use is blue, plastic, and looks similar to a hemostat. Additionally, the foleys all come with a needleless-port that allows one to obtain a urine sample using just a standard luer slip tip syringe vs the needle & syringe method.

If all you have is a Kelly clamp you can wrap a 2x2 (or 4x4, for bigger tubes) around just about anything and clamp over that. We use that for our 1.5Fr umbilical catheters up to chest tubes when changing out the pleurevac. The gauze prevents the little toothy bits of the clamp from damaging the line/tube/catheter.

We have a plastic clamp that comes with the whole shebang.

And a port close to the foley itself. Cleanse the port, use a needle and syringe, withdraw fluid.

steph