Urine Sample from Foley

1. what is the best (cleanest) way to obtain a urine sample from a foley catheter?

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2. 30 Comments

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3. 
   Jul 14, '07

   I have gone to different hospitals and they all have different procedures. I was told in school, clamp the foley and use a syringe with needle to pierce the tubing. The tubing should seal itself.
   
   But in the hospital I worked the usual procedure was to empty the bag and wait about 30ml and then collect the new urine.
   
   Hope this helps,

   Last edit by soontobenurse2 on Jul 14, '07 : Reason: add info
4. 
   Jul 14, '07

   You would never pierce the actual tubing, as that would create an entry for microorganisms - I've never heard of tubing that would seal itsself. THere should however, be a port along the tubing that you would swab with alcohol and aspirate the urine from with a needle/syringe (after clamping for a time).
5. 
   Jul 14, '07

   clamp tubing, aspirate from port.
   i agree about not piercing the tubing.
   
   leslie
6. 
   Jul 14, '07

   We were taught to clamp and draw it from the port. As often as the bag is opened to empty...it would not be a clean place to obtain a sample from.
7. 
   Jul 14, '07

   thanks all for your replies.
8. 
   Jul 14, '07

   Quote from Aprilhere

   We were taught to clamp and draw it from the port. As often as the bag is opened to empty...it would not be a clean place to obtain a sample from.

   
   Especially because urine can be sitting in the bag for hours sometimes. That's definitely long enought for things to fester. As for the self-sealing tubing, could you be getting the foley tubing mixed up with chest tube tubing? The tubing on a chest tube is self sealing and you can get samples from piercing with a needle.
9. 
   Jul 14, '07

   our ports are supposed to be used for gettnig samples, but once a needle goes in there, the blasted things leak forever. I usually just get sterile, disconnect from the drainage bag and use a toomey syringe to pull from the catheter.
10. 
    Jul 14, '07

    Are we the only ones that have needleless foley ports? I just screw a syringe on to the closest port to the patient and aspirate what is in the tubing. No needles required
11. 
    Jul 15, '07

    Use alcohol prep to prep port (close to connection site "Foley-bag") withdraw 20 ml''s from port, port is self sealfing, ideally
    Diana
12. 
    Jul 15, '07

    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!!!:trout:
13. 
    Jul 15, '07

    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?
14. 
    Jul 15, '07

    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)?

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