Collecting urine sample

rainbowsandsunshine · Feb 25, 2011

Depends on the patient.... If I have time, I usually try to get them during the day. Or, if we have a lot to get, I will try to get a few so night shift doesnt do all of them. We have a lot of incontinent people, so doing straight caths can be time consuming (since you have to get them cleaned up good first, and laying down). If they are continent, I just put a hat on the toilet and tell them to call me when it is complete.

Since our lab comes at night (between midnight and 4am), the urine is freshest if night shift collects it. But since we put it on ice anyway, I guess it doesnt make that much difference.

The ones I have the most trouble with are morbidly obese ladies with decreased ROM in their legs. Then, it requires at least 2 CNA's to help hold the legs apart so I can see what I am doing.

Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN · Feb 25, 2011

In my facility clean catch urine samples are not allowed. All must be done via straight cath. I have worked night shift, I am on day shift now. The night shift nurses may not be sitting around eating Bon Bons but the sure do have there hands in a bag of chips with a 2 liter bottle of pop sitting on the desk while texting and checking their facebook. Day shift is 100% busier than nights. with management telling you to do this, a family member irrate because their dads call light hasn't been answered yet, the doctor is waiting for you to round with him, you need to be in the dining room for breakfast and lunch,charting needs done and my med pass, there is no way I have time to get that resident undressed and laid down to do a straight cath. Night shift has charting, and med pass. come on now!

Night shift also has 2/3 less staff than day shift. Evenings is the busiest. I've worked every shift. Nights has two med passes for 50 patients, 2 CNAs, charting(which can take hours to do). And its not just writing the same nurses note on 5 patients, we have to make sure all those orders that day and evening shift took.. documented them. . Mind you every facility has a different routine each shift. But in my facility, theres no reason for a U/A C+S not to be obtained on day shift.

Hours I spend on facebook at work: 0.

Sorry, I don't know about you.. but I don't do that at work.

LTC-Nurse · Feb 26, 2011

I've worked both day shift and night shift. Night shift can get pretty crazy and they tend to have heavier workloads than day shift... But when it comes down to it, I always find that night shift has more downtime than day shift does. Night shift has time to take breaks, whereas on day shift we clock out for lunch, set our alarms, and go right back to work. The phone calls, doctor visits, demanding families, and coordination with rehab schedules is all added onto the workload of day shift nurses.

With that being said, urine specimen collections is (mostly) part of the tasks of the night shift. Just as someone said earlier, the specimens are more fresh that way. Yes, we have a specimen fridge. But its just common practice for us to get fresher specimens.

However, if there is an antibiotic order to be carried out, we collect the specimen right away so we can start the antibiotics after. That's the only time we let a specimen sit in the fridge longer than a couple of hours...

IowaKaren · Feb 26, 2011

At one time it used to be left for noc shift, then they finally started to try and get the UA on the shift the order was gotten and someone would run it over to the lab if it wasn't a lab day. Repeat UA's placed on the calender are usually done by noc shift, but just depends if they wake up to void or can void or not. A repeat cath UA is usually done on noc's but we do very few of those since it's deemed 'invasive' to the residents and needs a Dr's order and not just part of a standing order. Sometimes those clean catch UA's are contaminated and takes days to get a result, I would rather do cath UA's to cut down on contamination but,... I don't mind doing them on noc's.

Forever Sunshine, ASN, RN · Feb 26, 2011

At one time it used to be left for noc shift, then they finally started to try and get the UA on the shift the order was gotten and someone would run it over to the lab if it wasn't a lab day. Repeat UA's placed on the calender are usually done by noc shift, but just depends if they wake up to void or can void or not. A repeat cath UA is usually done on noc's but we do very few of those since it's deemed 'invasive' to the residents and needs a Dr's order and not just part of a standing order. Sometimes those clean catch UA's are contaminated and takes days to get a result, I would rather do cath UA's to cut down on contamination but,... I don't mind doing them on noc's.

The only U/A C+S we usually need to get usually is to rule out UTI. And we do have certain residents if we even walked past them with a catheter they'd scream, yell and kick. So those have to be done with a hat.

mozella · Feb 28, 2011

Night shift also has 2/3 less staff than day shift. Evenings is the busiest. I've worked every shift. Nights has two med passes for 50 patients, 2 CNAs, charting(which can take hours to do). And its not just writing the same nurses note on 5 patients, we have to make sure all those orders that day and evening shift took.. documented them. . Mind you every facility has a different routine each shift. But in my facility, theres no reason for a U/A C+S not to be obtained on day shift.
Hours I spend on facebook at work: 0.
Sorry, I don't know about you.. but I don't do that at work.

My facility works 8 hour shifts, we have 2 halls with 30 residents per hall, each hall has 1 nurse and 2 aides, that is the same on all shifts. On day shift I have a 9a, 12p, and 2p med pass, midnights has a 6a med pass.

I don't have a facebook and I never take my cell into the facility. I am just saying what I saw when I worked nights. Day shift and night shift at my facility are like two different worlds.