24 hour urine....refrigerate it or not?

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I never heard of refrigerating the jugs for 24 hour urine collection in the hospital I preceped at...BUT I just got ordered one to do on myself at home and the instructions said to keep it refrigerated. ??? Are the instructions maybe just in general for ALL possible tests that could be ordered and not specific to OB patients? (IE......do I REALLY have to put a jug of urine in my home refrigerator?)

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In the hospital, we always kept the jug on ice (in a basin of ice) in the patient's bathroom, the foley bag, if they had a foley was always in a basin of ice also.

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

No, but you do need to keep it cold. I'd get a supply of ice and a disposable cooler (one of those four-dollar styrofoam things), and keep your urine container in it while you do your collection. We do this at the hospital too.......very low-tech, but a lot nicer than keeping urine in the fridge, don't you think?:)

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Ice it.

No other way around.

David Adams, ARNP

ACNP/FNP

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We have those cheap disposable coolers we keep in pts rooms with the specimen on ice...go get ya onna those..don't think I'd want pee in my frig...lol

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Thanks for the quick replies.....I guess I am going to the garage to dig out DH's fishing cooler....I hope nobody comes over and wants to know why we have a cooler next to the toilet!!!

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Does it have additives? We don't ice our containers in OB because they have boric acid (I think?) in them. However, when I worked in the lab, we told pts to ice them at home. It depends on what the test is for and what additives, if any, are in the container.

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