If No Luck Trying to Straight Cath, Obtain Urine Sample from the Wet Pad?

[Zen123]

The outgoing nurse reports that she had trouble straight cathing a resident. Supervisor told her you can obtain the urine sample using a syringe to draw urine from the wet pad. (?) I've never heard of that, but would be great especially with difficult residents. The res. is incontinent. The order is to dip urine/ straight cath, send urine for UAC&S if Positive.

I can see doing a urine dip from the wet pad, but can u send the sample collected from the pad for UA C&S?

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

I've heard of placing a cotton ball in a bag that is attached to a neonatal/pedi patient then squeezing the cotton ball to obtain the specimen. That is only acceptable if one needs the specimen for UA. It is not obtained in a sterile manner as required for a culture. One needs to get a cathed or clean catch (very very difficult with an neonatal/pedi patient) for C&S.

I've never heard of using a syringe to draw a urine specimen from a "wet pad".

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

No; it needs to be sterile.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

The problem is that if you drew it from wet pad, it wouldn't be a clean sample for C&S--microorganisms from the pad (which if it's been under the patient, the pad is no longer sterile--it's been exposed to the air, the patient, etc.) would be included in the sample, as well as particles from the pad itself.

I wouldn't do it, not even for a routine UA.

[oldiebutgoodie, RN]

The sample would be contaminated with skin flora such as Staph aureus, as well as E.coli from stool, and all sorts of other flora and fauna. A sample drawn this way is worthless.

Oldiebutgoodie

[mamamerlee, LPN]

I agree with the other posters here. Did she say why she was not able to do the straight cath? I'm just curious.

[jessiern, BSN, RN]

I personally would not want to leave a patient on a pad until it was saturated enough for that to work.

[LisaDNP]

Ok, now I have truly heard it all................

[Zen123]

I agree with the other posters here. Did she say why she was not able to do the straight cath? I'm just curious.

I work in the am , received report that previous 3-11 and night shift nurses made attempts to cath the resident but no luck, did not get enough urine on the tubing they said. ( Okay, I figured they probably were not in the right place to begin with. )

I run into the 3-11 nurse again and she said she did not get enough urine in the tubing and so she reported it to the Supervisor in her shift- where she was told by this person that next time you can try to draw urine from the wet pad using a syringe to dip test. I have never heard of such a thing.

[FLArn]

Never heard of such a practice. But a lab tech told me once never to discard any sample just because you don't think there is enough to test. She said always try to process the sample because many tests require a much smaller amount of specimen than is submitted. It never hurts to try.

[StNeotser, ASN, RN]

Uh, I don't think so.

[sasha1224]

This reminds me fo the "old days" when we drew all specimens from a diaper. It was explained to me that new diaper materials interfered with current testing, so we stopped sending them. If Peds or NICU try bagging, if adult try new cath.