Peri-Care - What do you think of this?

[lexibear99, LPN]

We were recently given a memo at the ltc facility I work at about proper peri care. On the male side they had listed the following:

DO NOT pull back the foreskin on uncircumcised males.

What do you all think of this? Everyone at my facility is in shock, what other way is there to clean this area? We all know you have to be careful that you pull the foreskin back after cleaning, but if no one gets cleaned under this...:uhoh21:

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Well, ewww!

[Reno1978, BSN, RN]

That's simply unhygienic and it doesn't make sense.

What's next? Oral care without opening patients' mouths?

Ridiculous.

[cwuthers]

Did they happen to state the rational for this? I would definately be interested.

[Neveranurseagain, RN]

Many yrs ago we got this same memo. It stemmed from someone doing peri-care on a male and neglected to fully reduce or unretract the foreskin, resulting in a VERY EDEMATOUS, foreskin. A urologist was called and after some valium/demerol/MS, it was finally laid to rest where it should have been.

The next day the charge nurse tacked up a sign next to the sink that read :

1. Wash your own dishes you mother does not work here.

2. Foreskins are not to be retracted during pericare.

But I was the only one who thought it was funny.

[Valerie Salva, BSN, RN]

Many yrs ago we got this same memo. It stemmed from someone doing peri-care on a male and neglected to fully reduce or unretract the foreskin, resulting in a VERY EDEMATOUS, foreskin. A urologist was called and after some valium/demerol/MS, it was finally laid to rest where it should have been.

The next day the charge nurse tacked up a sign next to the sink that read :

1. Wash your own dishes you mother does not work here.

2. Foreskins are not to be retracted during pericare.

But I was the only one who thought it was funny.

Lol! I think someone should cross-stitch that into a sampler.

[lexibear99, LPN]

Did they happen to state the rational for this? I would definately be interested.

Yep, exactly the reason stated above. Apparently the Admin had this happen at a previous facility and she doesn't want it happening again.

[CapeCodMermaid, RN]

Reminds me of......a few years ago I had a C.N.A. come running down the hall shouting my name. She was hollering that there was something wrong with Mr. Smith's member and "since you've seen so many memberes, you should be the one to look". One of the docs was there. I thought he'd bust a gut laughing. Of course I hurried down the hall to look at poor Mr Smith's member....um....nothing wrong. It was uncirmcumsized. The CNA just couldn't figure out what all 'that extra skin' was about. Luckily, Mr Smith was rather demented so he didn't have to ponder why I had tears streaming down my cheeks from trying not to laugh.

We were taught to always retract the foreskin for cleaning and make sure it was put back afterwards.

[mama_d, BSN, RN]

Perhaps this is why we constantly get LTC patients admitted to the hospital who have raging infections under their foreskins. I've always thought that shoddy care was to blame, and never once thought it was possible that it was policy instead. I will certainly keep that in mind next time I get one of these!

Seems like it would make more sense to teach people the right way to do it instead of avoiding it entirely. Then again, we are talking about management here, right?

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

Perhaps this is why we constantly get LTC patients admitted to the hospital who have raging infections under their foreskins.

We always do peri-care to the glans.

[AirforceRN, RN]

I would think a memo stating "Foreskin must always be returned to its natural position after pericare" would be more effective.

[rn/writer, RN]

This amounts to saying, "Some people don't do uncircumcised male peri care correctly, so, in the interest of avoiding problems, we just won't do it at all."

Can you imagine applying this kind of "logic" to other procedures?