Difficulty cathing a female patient

[happycath]

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I work in a hospital and had much difficulty cathing a female patient on my last shift. I thought it was just me, but when three other nurses failed as well, I knew it couldn't be all of us going wrong. Finally the 4th nurse got it and the patient felt very relieved. The patient was healthy 28 year old female with no known urologic or gynecologic problems. We were using a straight cath. Any ideas about what could have caused this?

HAPPY CATH

 

[JudoKing01]

I know I gave a smart ass answer on the other forum, but what was the actual problem? Could you not get it in at all? Or did no urine come out when you got it in?

 

[TucsonDDS]

I work in a hospital and had much difficulty cathing a female patient on my last shift. I thought it was just me, but when three other nurses failed as well, I knew it couldn't be all of us going wrong. Finally the 4th nurse got it and the patient felt very relieved. The patient was healthy 28 year old female with no known urologic or gynecologic problems. We were using a straight cath. Any ideas about what could have caused this?

HAPPY CATH

I would think what caused this would be that you didn't get the right hole. How was her anatomy, could you find a definite meatus. If not sometimes they can be hidden in the vagina. Good luck next time and wait until you get to do a 3 week old.

 

[JudoKing01]

Wow, I definately had a post up here earlier, and it disappeared.

Anyway, she could've had a stricure or just a narrow urethra...it happens.

 

[NPs Save Lives]

I work in a hospital and had much difficulty cathing a female patient on my last shift. I thought it was just me, but when three other nurses failed as well, I knew it couldn't be all of us going wrong. Finally the 4th nurse got it and the patient felt very relieved. The patient was healthy 28 year old female with no known urologic or gynecologic problems. We were using a straight cath. Any ideas about what could have caused this?

HAPPY CATH

I have also had that exact scenario once. Four different nurses attempted and put the woman in various positions. I called the doctor who of course said "She's a female for God's sake, how hard can it be? I told him that obviously her anatomy is different than most.. After coming in and attempting 3 times, he finally got it and had to concede that we weren't crazy.. It was way up inside her vaginal canal and to the right... She was a young woman also... 🙂

 

[TucsonDDS]

Even better is when you can't get a cath out of a patient. It is a lot of fun when you call a doc to tell them that you cant get a balloon deflated and they come up all pissed off with an attitude, ask for a pair of scissors and cut the stupid catheter in half to deflate the balloon. It is then a lot of fun when they have piss leaking all over the place and the balloon still won't deflate while they call up the local urologist on call sounding just as stupid as you felt when you called them.

 

[talaxandra]

I was once involved catheterising a woman with... let's say her anatomy was perforated, and not through piercing. She had seven catheters in situ, one of which had snaked in one hole and looped out through another, and none of them were in her bladder. Eighth one was the charm