securing foleys

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I was wondering if it is common practice for you or your unit to secure foleys? I have seen so many unsecured ones that I wonder about the damage being done, pulling and such. I have also seen foleys secured in weird ways which leaves the member bent (I am currently at a facility that is 98% males).

Is there a correlation between UTI and the lack of foleys being secured. I do plan on researching this, but I was just curious if anyone knows offhand.

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We use the velcro leg bands to secure them in place. Have not seen a lot that are not secured. If for some reason we don't have a velcro band then we will tape it in place until we get a leg band. I am not sure about the not securing them et a connection to UTIs.

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We just changed policy and are now using a Foley statlock to secure the tube. I like the velcro straps a lot better and so do hairy legs.

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I've always secured it. Since I worked ER and a lot of our Foleys were temporary, we just used tape and the admitted pts would get the velcro leg bands on the floor. I doubt there's a connection between this and UTI's, it's more of a comfort thing. I've had a Foley twice, and neither time was it secured. The second time it was only for 24 hours, not a big deal. The first time was for several days and it was uncomfortable whenever I got up. I dropped the bag once and the pulling hurt.

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Specializes in ER/EHR Trainer.

Even before we had stat locks included in foley kits-I always used either paper tape or our former version of a statlok if it was available. Trauma to the urethra is not a pretty site, in slightly altered patients-secured foleys are much safer from unplanned (patient) removal. During a nursing externship I had a patient with MS-his member was actually laid open along the entire length of the urethra due to constant trauma to the soft tissue. Of course he couldn't feel it, but I felt really bad for him-not only was his life and sexuality taken away by his disease(early 50"s)-due to someone's lack of caring his body was ravaged by a piece of equipment. It still bothers me to think about it!

Maisy;);)

PS I always lock to female thigh in two places and on male abdomen(unless patient heavy) then on thigh.

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I am the leg strap queen. I swear, every shift I work I put leg straps on at least 2 people! It's nuts! I can't imagine why people are not securing foleys.

I have seen them taped in weird ways also...I avoid tape if I can. I had a pt transfer to me once...he was a DNR. We were going to do comfort care only on him. When I did his assessment, I found that someone had taped his foley in a...strange...way. They spiral taped it to his member (like an NG tube). I felt SO bad for him! It the tape was all gooey and it was puling on his hair - you could see the poor little hairs stretched tight! Needless to say, we got a leg strap on him (after pulling out a lot of his hair!). I think he felt a lot better after that, lol! I'm not sure who thought taping it like that would be a good idea, and I can't believe they left him like that for so long!!!

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Specializes in icu, er, transplant, case management, ps.

I haven't worked in seventeen years but I have had foley's in for three months and twenty one days. Mine were taped to my leg. And neither was kinked. I do remember that some of the UTI's we got in, their foley's were kinked in such a fashion as to restrict the flow out of the tubing. They generally had UTIs as a result. I had one patient who came in with a foley that was packed solid with sediments, that resulted in urinary flow being blocked.

Woody:balloons:

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