Lying Foley bag on floor?

[bookwormom]

I was teaching foley skills today and told the students to never lay the catheter bag on the floor. One of my students who works in OB/GYN at an area hospital says the aides aretold to always lay the bag directly on the floor so it will drain better.

Has anyone else heard of this?

[psalm, RN]

if you really need to have it that low....get a disposable wash basin to put it in

Yes, and label the wash basin "For foley only" or something similar so it will be used only for foley. We don't want patients and visitors thinking we use the same basin for bathing!

[suni, BSN, RN]

I have seen this done and have seen a blue pad placed on the floor to lay the foley bag on, I do not encourage staff to do this but I have seen t work and drainage start.

[EvelynRN-BSN]

I've worked in ICU and we never put the foley bag on the floor. It puts the patient at risk for harm. What if someone trips over the foley and out come the foley, imagine the balloon being yanked out of the urethra, ouch! And the fact of contamination, risk for infection. We've always hooked the foley bag on the side of the bed. Always below the level of bladder. We don't want any back flow of urine!!!!

[psalm, RN]

I've worked in ICU and we never put the foley bag on the floor. It puts the patient at risk for harm. What if someone trips over the foley and out come the foley, imagine the balloon being yanked out of the urethra, ouch! And the fact of contamination, risk for infection. We've always hooked the foley bag on the side of the bed. Always below the level of bladder. We don't want any back flow of urine!!!!

Just a question/observation...how many ICU beds are set up to the same height as beds on the typical med/surg floor? Some of the med/surg beds are lower than usual for fall precautions, and hooking the foley on the side of the bed sometimes IS ON the floor, hence, the foley in the bath basin. It's not ideal, but we work with what we have, to prevent back flow.

[MassED, BSN, RN]

I have heard of that - though I haven't ever done that. Also when I worked with ortho patients and s/p knee replacements, the drainage (fresh postop) blood would drain into a bag that was flat on the floor. When I worked with many Sickle Cell patients - we would have to drain off the thick blood into a bag that was on the floor. With Peritoneal Dialysis, the off going fluids go into a bag on the floor. The infusing dialysate hangs on an IV pole.

[EvelynRN-BSN]

I have heard of that - though I haven't ever done that. Also when I worked with ortho patients and s/p knee replacements, the drainage (fresh postop) blood would drain into a bag that was flat on the floor. When I worked with many Sickle Cell patients - we would have to drain off the thick blood into a bag that was on the floor. With Peritoneal Dialysis, the off going fluids go into a bag on the floor. The infusing dialysate hangs on an IV pole.

In ICU with our PD patients, we put a washtub basin on the floor and slide it a little under the bed to decrease the risk of someone tripping over it and the off going fluids that run into the bag is placed in the washtub basin, instead of just placing it on the floor.

[EvelynRN-BSN]

Just a question/observation...how many ICU beds are set up to the same height as beds on the typical med/surg floor? Some of the med/surg beds are lower than usual for fall precautions, and hooking the foley on the side of the bed sometimes IS ON the floor, hence, the foley in the bath basin. It's not ideal, but we work with what we have, to prevent back flow.

Actually the ICU beds we used would multi-functional mechanical beds that would go low, medium to high. But it was not so low that the bag could not connect to the bed. Now if the beds you are talking about are like the LTC beds where they are pretty much right smack dead to the floor, then no they don't go that low. But I would put a water basin down and the put the foley bag in that so that it was not just sitting on the floor.

[cocco]

I work in urology/gynecology in one of those great magnet hospitals that are being spoken of and we do put our foley catheters on the floor. For some reason the catheters that they place in the or back up and cause horrible pain for the patient. We place the bag on the floor, on a chux, and the urine starts flowing. I am not going to leave my pt in pain just so I can keep the bag off of the floor.