Have you colleted specimen from a patient before

[afromom]

I was just wondering if everyone is pretty much going to have experience with collecting specimen from patients, as a CNA and how often is this assigned, rarely or often?

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I would check with your facility's policy. If that doesn't give you clear cut answers, read up on your state's scope of practice for RNs and LPNs. The language is usually thick, but often times explains what tasks can and cannot be legally delegated.

The only specimens I insist upon collecting myself are blood draws from Central Lines and Permacaths and Ports and urine draws from indwelling urinary catheters (I probably could delegate this, but I choose not to). Everything else (stool samples, clean catch and random urine as well as urine collected from Foley bags, Sputum samples produced by the patient, and capillary blood sticks) can be done by techs.

Now, of course, some techs are specifically educated in obtaining venous blood draws.

[CoffeemateCNA]

It's pretty common for CNAs to collect urine samples, especially in LTC where there are often suspected cases of UTIs.

Stool samples are done in LTC but with far less frequency. We usually do them to determine if the resident is infected with C. diff or not.

I have never seen a sputum culture done before.

None of them are hard to do. For urine samples we usually have the resident urinate into a "hat" on the toilet seat and then drain that into the specimen cup. For stool samples, the resident defecates into a bedpan and then you "spoon" some into the specimen cup (if they are incontinent, I have seen it scraped from the inside of a brief before, but I'm unsure of the efficacy of this practice).

[Poi Dog]

I have collected stool samples from residents.

[Penelope_Pitstop, BSN, RN]

I have never seen a sputum culture done before.

Basically, the patient hocks a loogie into the specimen cup.

If the patient is unable to do that on his or her own, it warrants interventions that, in my opinion, are not to be delegated.

[juliaann]

At my hospital we do it all the time. Urine is the most common, but also stool (sample in a cup or smeared on an occult blood test card), sputum, 24 hour urine, nasal swab (for MRSA), etc. We usually have 3-4 samples to collect per shift.

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

Yes I've ATTEMPTED to do it all the time @ my facility, but usually I'm never there when they are succesfully collected. Its kind of difficult to get some of my residents to pee into those little things that rest underneath the commode.

[LaterAlligator]

I'm with MiiszKimberly here, LOL. I put the "hat" on their toilet, offer to take the resident to the bathroom, and they usually say "oh, no, dear, I just went!"

As long as they're pretty "with-it" I jsut come back later to collect it. It's very easy, you just pour the urine from the hat into the sample cup so that it can be tested. Elderly people get UTI's very frequently, so we do a lot of those at my AL facility.

[KimberlyRN89, BSN, RN]

I'm with MiiszKimberly here, LOL. I put the "hat" on their toilet, offer to take the resident to the bathroom, and they usually say "oh, no, dear, I just went!"

As long as they're pretty "with-it" I jsut come back later to collect it. It's very easy, you just pour the urine from the hat into the sample cup so that it can be tested. Elderly people get UTI's very frequently, so we do a lot of those at my AL facility.

Lol! The ones @ my facility will knock the "hat" into the toilet on purpose! Idk how they do it, but kudos to night shift b/c 99% of the time they're the ones who successfully collect the samples:yeah:

[CoffeemateCNA]

Lol! The ones @ my facility will knock the "hat" into the toilet on purpose! Idk how they do it, but kudos to night shift b/c 99% of the time they're the ones who successfully collect the samples:yeah:

I've never really had much of a problem with that. If they won't do it, I tell them that doing it on the toilet is the "easy" way and I also mention the word "catheter." They usually do exceptionally well on the first try after that. :)

[JDZ344]

I collect specimins of urine (from an exsisting foley, straight cath or a clean void), stool, sputum (yuckyuckyuck!) and blood.

If the fluid grosses you out, do what I do- prelabel the container, so you can shove the sample in or close it and bag it fast.

Oh- we also collect wound swabs, and MRSA swabs.