straight caths and students

[adrienurse, LPN]

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[Lacie, BSN, RN]

No I dont think it is unreasonable. In fact it was one of the first things we had to do in the clinical area when I was in the BSN program. It was one of the most basic task we learned in our first clinical/lab semester.

[MIA-RN1, RN]

Its reasonable as long as they have learned it. If you mean can they just do it, maybe not because they may have only practiced on a dummy in the lab. But should they be able to learn by doing with supervision, I would think so; in my ADN program I did several in my second clinical semester.

[LeesieBug]

As far as whether or not they have learned the skill...it depends on the program.In most four year programs, the "second year" is actually the FIRST year doing nursing classes....so a student may not have done catheters yet.

In our program, caths were done in lab during OB, which wasn't done until junior year. If it came up before that point in clinical we could do it with an instructor teaching us.

[Reno1978, BSN, RN]

Yep - this is something I learned how to do in my first semester of nursing courses.

[misty_maurie]

I dont know if every state is the same but here in MN we had to pass our lab skills before they could be done on a patient. Of course we only had the dummies (no one would volunteer!) but if you didnt pass a skill by your third try you had to retake the whole class!

[mediatix8]

They should have gone over it by then so they should have some basic idea of what it is and that it should be done with sterile technique. But, schools are different with how much they emphasize clinical skills. If they've only seen a video and practced on a plastic urethra their first semester than I wouldn't expect them to be that well versed with the procedure. Also, "straight cath kits" or "foley insertion kits" can look diffferent at different hospitals. What they used to practice at school could look different from what you have. My hospital's kits have the lube in a syringe inside the kit and you are to squeeze the syringe out on the foley to lube it. I work night shift and I honestly do not insert many foleys. The first time I had to do it I was in charge and had almost a year of nursing experience. I thought that syringe with the lube was actually what you are to use to inflate the balloon thing at the end of the foley. When I couldn't inject what I thought was NS (it was really lube) I was very perplexed and had to stop the whole thing and get another nurse to help me. So what.

[NicoleRN07, RN]

It's been a while, but as I recall, that was one of the very first things we learned in nursing school, so NO, I don't think it's unreasonable at all.

[jjjoy, LPN]

As others have noted, each school's curriculum will dictate when students are formally taught various skills.

A student performing a skill only previously practiced in skills lab may need lots and lots of guidance. The dummy's labias don't flop around, the dummy's have no extra body fat, the dummy's legs can spread very easily, the dummy's don't move or talk or feel, the dummy's urethra is an obvious hole... and even if you've done one, the next one might be totally different as human bodies are unique. After you've done many of them, then you can feel more confident that you can perform it correctly on just about any shape or size person. Unfortunately, many students haven't even had the chance to watch such procedures in practice. Maybe once or twice if lucky. After all, what patient wants 10 nursing students surrounding the bed to watch them be cath'ed? And how many nurses want to be watched by a bunch of questioning students while performing said task?

Many students come out of school having only practiced such skills once or twice over the course of a year or two, so even if a student learned a skill first semester of their first year, it may have been several months since they intensely practiced it. If they didn't know the night before that they'd get to do a cath, they might not feel confident that they remember every last detail... and in skills lab, instructors would often critique students on the smallest difference in procedure, even if it didn't compromise the clean technique - so a student might feel very nervous and intimated to perform a straight cath alone without thoroughly reviewing every last subpoint of the precedure before performing it.

It sounds like you may have run across a student who either couldn't or didn't want to perform a straight cath. I can't say what her particular reasoning was and if it was valid or not.

[Danish, MSN, APRN, NP]

In finishing my first semester in an LPN program and we have already learned to straight cath in the lab. We have not, however, done it in clinical, only foley's

[mom2michael, MSN, RN, NP]

Well - I was taught how to do Foley's and straight caths my 1st semester but NEVER EVER had the chance to do either one in clinicals - got enough experience at work though as I worked in an ER most of nursing school....so all was good.

[adrienurse, LPN]

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