Catheters

This question is a little sensitive, but I have been thinking strongly about going to LPN school and a close friends asks me, "Do you really think you will be able to insert a catheter into someone? It must be very difficult."

I told her I think I could do it if I was taught properly.

So my question is....Are catheters difficult to learn? Thanks!

Lillies and who-hoos are like fingerprints-no two are exactly alike and some can be challenging but once you get comfortable with the procedure,the equipment and your sterile technique you'll do fine.You'll pick up lots of "tricks of the trade" with experience...And after you have had your face down between someone's legs a few times (and it isn't your significant other) you realize it is no different then any other task.... you want your pt to be confident in you and comfortable.....

Lillies and who-hoos are like fingerprints-no two are exactly alike and some can be challenging but once you get comfortable with the procedure,the equipment and your sterile technique you'll do fine.You'll pick up lots of "tricks of the trade" with experience...And after you have had your face down between someone's legs a few times (and it isn't your significant other) you realize it is no different then any other task.... you want your pt to be confident in you and comfortable.....

This question is a little sensitive, but I have been thinking strongly about going to LPN school and a close friends asks me, "Do you really think you will be able to insert a catheter into someone? It must be very difficult."

I told her I think I could do it if I was taught properly.

So my question is....Are catheters difficult to learn? Thanks!

Urinary drainage catheters? no--very easy--"see one, do one, teach one," as they say. Sometimes with older men with benign prostatic hypertrophy, adhesions or a history of radiation or surgery, the catheter may be difficult to pass, but there are more advanced techniques, and different types of catheters, that you will learn when the time comes to circumvent that poblem--occasionally it requires the intervention of a urologist. This can even occur with YOUNGER men who have a history of gonorrhea that was not treated properly or in a timely fashion, or with repeated bouts of gonorrhea.

I'll teach you a trick that even some experienced nurses and docs don't know or utilize. When you catheterize a male, don't goop up the catheter with KY, making insertion messy--instead, inject the entire syringe of KY directly into the patient's urethra. Your gloves will stay clean and dry and the catheter will slip right in. If you don't get a urine return immediately, it simply means, usaully, that the KY hasn't melted sufficiently. You can remedy this problem by flushing the catheter with steril water or NS--just 5 cc. or so. It will dislodge or dissolve the plug of KY, which is water soluble, and you will get an immediate urine return.

Also. if you wind the excess length of the catheter around your fingers, it won't be so "floppy" and will be less likely to become contaminated, as you insert it.

Insert it ALL THE WAY TO THE HUB, wait for a urine return, inflate the balloon WITH THE ENTIRE 10 cc of fluid in the syringe, then pull the catheter back until it stops.

You will do just fine.

This question is a little sensitive, but I have been thinking strongly about going to LPN school and a close friends asks me, "Do you really think you will be able to insert a catheter into someone? It must be very difficult."

I told her I think I could do it if I was taught properly.

So my question is....Are catheters difficult to learn? Thanks!

Urinary drainage catheters? no--very easy--"see one, do one, teach one," as they say. Sometimes with older men with benign prostatic hypertrophy, adhesions or a history of radiation or surgery, the catheter may be difficult to pass, but there are more advanced techniques, and different types of catheters, that you will learn when the time comes to circumvent that poblem--occasionally it requires the intervention of a urologist. This can even occur with YOUNGER men who have a history of gonorrhea that was not treated properly or in a timely fashion, or with repeated bouts of gonorrhea.

I'll teach you a trick that even some experienced nurses and docs don't know or utilize. When you catheterize a male, don't goop up the catheter with KY, making insertion messy--instead, inject the entire syringe of KY directly into the patient's urethra. Your gloves will stay clean and dry and the catheter will slip right in. If you don't get a urine return immediately, it simply means, usaully, that the KY hasn't melted sufficiently. You can remedy this problem by flushing the catheter with steril water or NS--just 5 cc. or so. It will dislodge or dissolve the plug of KY, which is water soluble, and you will get an immediate urine return.

Also. if you wind the excess length of the catheter around your fingers, it won't be so "floppy" and will be less likely to become contaminated, as you insert it.

Insert it ALL THE WAY TO THE HUB, wait for a urine return, inflate the balloon WITH THE ENTIRE 10 cc of fluid in the syringe, then pull the catheter back until it stops.

You will do just fine.

female catheterization is easy....older ones can be a little trickier but just remember that if you can feed the catheter in and keep on going and going, then you're in the wrong place. and females are not all anatomically correct.

males on the other hand, i have had problems with...granted every single one had prostate ca and or bph and their bladder neck was partially obstructed....md's sometimes ended up doing the catheterization and traumatizing them, bleeding, ramming it in...other mds have sent them to urology to have it done.

i do remember as a nursing student, being SO impressed with those nurses that could catheterize so yes, i understand your apprehension. you'll do fine.

leslie

female catheterization is easy....older ones can be a little trickier but just remember that if you can feed the catheter in and keep on going and going, then you're in the wrong place. and females are not all anatomically correct.

males on the other hand, i have had problems with...granted every single one had prostate ca and or bph and their bladder neck was partially obstructed....md's sometimes ended up doing the catheterization and traumatizing them, bleeding, ramming it in...other mds have sent them to urology to have it done.

i do remember as a nursing student, being SO impressed with those nurses that could catheterize so yes, i understand your apprehension. you'll do fine.

leslie

Piece of cake. Once you've done it, you'll wonder what all the apprehension was about!!!!! :chuckle

Piece of cake. Once you've done it, you'll wonder what all the apprehension was about!!!!! :chuckle