What is the answer to this question!?

commonsense · Apr 19, 2012

Mrs. So-and-so has an indwelling cath. Her bag was changed before your shift. Two hours into your shift, you notice there's not much urine in her cath bag. What do you do?
A. Check the connection.
B. Calculate input and output
C. Perform cath care and tell the nurse asap.

A. Check the connection. Think about it, the catheter bag was changed a couple hours ago and now it's not draining properly. The easiest solution is to check the connection.

Source: I'm pretty much a bad ***

panduhlove · Apr 19, 2012

But most people I've talked to say that it should be B, because two hours isn't that great of a time to be producing massive amounts of pee. If they never drank anything, it could make sense that they haven't produced much fluid. Even a doctor told me that the first thing he would want to know is how much they drank.

commonsense · Apr 19, 2012

But most people I've talked to say that it should be B, because two hours isn't that great of a time to be producing massive amounts of pee. If they never drank anything, it could make sense that they haven't produced much fluid. Even a doctor told me that the first thing he would want to know is how much they drank.

You make a good point panduhlove, but I'm sticking with my original choice. If you were to calculate intake and output and the tubing was kinked you would be calculating incorrect information. Checking the tubing for kinks is an easy and quick way to verify that the catheter is not tied up. Even though it doesn't seem like much, the patient should have at least 60 mL of urine in the catheter bag, that's a minimum of 60 mL.

panduhlove · Apr 19, 2012

Well, I think the question would be a lot less debatable if my professor said like after 8 hours there was not urine. Plus, you could just calculate how much they drank, notice that they should have x amount more of urine in that bag and realize there's a connection problem. My teacher is actually willing to give credit to the people who answered C than opposed to B.. only because there was more people who answered C... So not fair.. Haha

commonsense · Apr 19, 2012

Well, I think the question would be a lot less debatable if my professor said like after 8 hours there was not urine. Plus, you could just calculate how much they drank, notice that they should have x amount more of urine in that bag and realize there's a connection problem. My teacher is actually willing to give credit to the people who answered C than opposed to B.. only because there was more people who answered C... So not fair.. Haha

Interesting, so the teacher accepted answers B and C, but not answer A?

cnamom12 · Apr 19, 2012

I would personally check the connection which is a simple things to do and then see how much she has had to drink to determine if there is an issue that calls for the nurses attention.

guest042302019, BSN, RN · Apr 19, 2012

There's really not much information there. I think there are people that are "reading" into this questions too much. We don't know an exact amount of urine just "not much." I would say immediately get rid of C. Because, while cath care may be warranted, this situation doesn't necessarily warrant "tell the nurse ASAP" as if there is some type of obstruction or acute renal failure. Also, we don't know how much patient has drank, fluid restriction, or other medical diseases. Calculate I/O seems a bit premature. Simplest answer as stated above, look at connection first. Then, if connection is good, calculate I/O then perform cath care/tell nurse ASAP. Just my two cents. The question is kind of lame but we have to sift to through lame, ambiguous, and confusing questions. Try not to assume or read into the question too much. Good luck!

nursegirl75 · Apr 19, 2012

on the NCLEX, the answer would definitely be A. Check the connection and also the most logical answer esp since the cath bag was just changed

yourstruly · Apr 19, 2012

A - assess first

FORTHELOVEOF!!!! · Apr 19, 2012

That is poorly worded question, it would make more sense to ask what would you do first, but then I don't know if cath care would really fit into the question at all (you would do cath care regardless of urine output), and she gave credit for that?

nowim clean · Apr 19, 2012

That sounds like an ATI question that was pulled from the bok but they did not give you the full information the book provided. We had a similar question in peds/ob once asking what you as a RN would not do when ascessing an infant. The sceniro was about wills tumor and the answer was palpate but that information was left out