Catheterization Expiriences

[ubsjl]

what are your expiriences during catheterization??????????'

i mean, did you expirience any big complications, any special situations, anegdots etc. while:

doing them?

assisting with them?

having them done on yourself?

[ktliz]

I was having trouble visualizing the urethra of a larger lady. My neck was craned and I had the catheter in hand.... and my instructor told me to stop; I had broken sterile field. I couldn't figure out what I had done wrong! When we stepped outside the room, my instructor told me that some of my hair had fallen out of my ponytail and brushed across the catheter as I was leaning over. Ughh.

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

I had a neurosurgery icu pt that had a foley which was previously fine. Urine output started to drop. I checked to see if it was linked and it was not. Pressed down on her abdomen and sprayed urine. Bladder scanned her and a liter was there. Pulled the old foley and placed a new one and got over one liter out. Poor lady. There was a small blockage in the tip of the foley.

I was straight cathed during labor and that hurt like Hell.

[leslie :-D]

I had a neurosurgery icu pt that had a foley which was previously fine. Urine output started to drop. I checked to see if it was linked and it was not. Pressed down on her abdomen and sprayed urine. Bladder scanned her and a liter was there. Pulled the old foley and placed a new one and got over one liter out. Poor lady. There was a small blockage in the tip of the foley.

did you try irrigating first, before pulling old one out?

leslie

[anotherone, BSN, RN]

turn on all of the lights, bring a flashlight, someone to help, raise the bed, positioning is very important.

[dirtyhippiegirl, BSN, RN]

I shoulda known something was up when I overhead "hey, let's get the nursing student to put in the foley."

Lady was easily over 700 lbs. I had 2 nurses holding each leg + 1 nurse holding the pannus + 1 nurse holding the flashlight. And the poor PCA who had to wipe up all the cheese for me to even begin to sterilize the area.

Of course, I stuck it in the vag the first time.

[Nascar nurse, ASN, RN]

I shoulda known something was up when I overhead "hey, let's get the nursing student to put in the foley."

Lady was easily over 700 lbs. I had 2 nurses holding each leg + 1 nurse holding the pannus + 1 nurse holding the flashlight. And the poor PCA who had to wipe up all the cheese for me to even begin to sterilize the area.

Of course, I stuck it in the vag the first time.

You win - you've got the ickiest!

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

if you want to avoid the lady parts reliably and prevent contaminating the cath there, tuck the last betadine-soaked cotton ball into the introitus just enough to occlude it on the last swipe. i learned this 40 years ago and it still works, never had it fail me. don't forget to remove it :) .

[turnforthenurse, MSN, NP]

...here I was thinking cardiac cath...

[~Mi Vida Loca~RN, ASN, RN]

I was coined the Urethra whisperer during clinicals because I was able to get a lot of difficult caths, especially on extremely obese patients where there were no identifying markers.

Definitely bring in 2 cath kits, try and get an extra set of hands if you can, if you can't see the urethra or the pt. is large it can help to lay the head of the bed down. Raise the bed for your comfort and then put them in like a semi trendelenburg position. Gravity helps shift everything out of your way. If you still can't see anything then you go in and up. Sometimes you have to go up quiet a bit and you will think you didn't get it and all of a sudden you see the output.

Realize you win some and you lose some and don't beat yourself up if you don't get it.

[fiveofpeep]

I suck at catheterizing females so I often volunteer to do them for other nurses. One time I zealously volunteered to catheterize this zonked out post op ortho patient.

So I go in there and I can't find the hole (my usual problem) and the orthopedic surgeon ends up step by step guiding me through the process.

When I see the urine flow back I get excited and the MD yells "We've struck gold!"

I thread it in a bit more and the doc says "Okay, we don't want to cath her ureters now, do we."

I still suck at it though. Maybe it's my crappy eye sight...

[fiveofpeep]

I was coined the Urethra whisperer during clinicals because I was able to get a lot of difficult caths, especially on extremely obese patients where there were no identifying markers.

Urethra Whisperer :lol2:

[tiroka03, LPN]

Good idea, I think I will try it next time I cath a larger women. Might save them a lot of tugging and leg propping. Thanks