inserting foley, some tips please

[PRETTYODD]

What is best way to preserve sterile field in foley ?

[raputa62]

I agree with mskate.........a couple of extra hands and a flashlight is the best thing possible. I have been inserting foleys for many years now, and I have found that if I am on the side I best work from, at the head of the patients bed, with an over-bed table as the area for my sterile field on my opposite side, to where I only have to turn your upper body toward.....works very well for me....you just need to venture and find what works best for you, and keeps your sterile field as sterile as possible....but, I do recommend the extra pair of hands and a flashlight! Good Luck to you!!

[RickyC005]

Nice thread. I might start a foley once or twice every few months. Fluffy, elderly women are the most challenging the "bearing down like you have to pee" can help.

Glad I found this forum.

~RickyC

[heron, ASN, RN]

This needs a helper or two as well, but sometimes with obese women or women with lots of skin folds, using a side-lying position with the hips and knees flexed and the upper leg held by a helper can give a much better view.

Also can be better tolerated if resps are restricted by the belly when lying flat.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

I once had an elderly male that said he thought his rabbi had cut off too much of his member because it was always hard to find. He had been embarassed his entire life. I told him that the rabbi did a normal job and it was just a bit of some belly (fat pad?) that was hiding the member. He said I made him the happiest he had ever been... come to think of it, maybe he was happy someone found it, other than him.... and had to touch it!

ewwww gross. Bamboozled!

[jerenemarie]

If I accidently got the foley in the lady parts, I would leave it in as a "marker" so I could see where the urethra was when I opened a up a new foley for insertion! I was also taught by a urologist when cathing men to insert the foley up to the hilt (until the balloon insertion site was next to member), this way when you inflate the balloon you know you aren't going to have any trauma. I worked with an RN who inflated the balloon too soon after she put in the foley in a man & he ended up in the ER with severe bleeding...the foley was not in the bladder & she inflated it while it was still in the ureter, OUCH!

[NotReady4PrimeTime, RN]

One way to tell if you're in the bladder on a female and not the other place is to insert until you have resistance then inflate the balloon. Give the foley a little tug and if it stays where it's put then it's not in the other place. If it pops out with just the slightest tug, then you know where it wasn't.

Don't whatever you do try to force abduction on a patient with contractures. Femoral neck fractures hurt like the dickens and take a long time to heal in these ladies.

[PRETTYODD]

thanks, so having extra pair of gloves and flashlight helps

[lpn-ny]

All great tips. One thing I could add is something one of my nursing instructors told me while in nursing school. Her tip was go home and grab a mirror ladies and look at yourself and know where it is on you because how can you find it on someone else without knowing where it is on you. Kind of strange but I did it and I got it on the first try inserting a foley in a female.