SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
This afternoon we had two patients on my unit who needed to be Catheterised. (Urinary Caths.) In both cases the job was made much more difficult because of the patients medical conditions.
I listened to the screams of pain coming from one room and the grumbles of the R.N.'s in both cases. I didn't say anything until the R.N.'s declared that they had been beat and it would need a surgeon to get the catheters in place. That's when i stepped forward and told my boss she could save face, not have to call in a surgeon to do a simple job any R.N. should be able to do. She looked at me and thought about it for a minute then told me she would break the rule she had instituted and allow me to do the deed.
(Several years ago my hospital had a problem with U.T.I.'s caused by Catheters being inserted in an unsanitary manner. My Boss felt it was being caused by the C.N.A.'s inserting the catheters while not following Sterile Field Protocols. She was proved wrong in this assesment but her ban on C.N.A.'s inserting Catheters was kept in place due to office politics.)
I reviewed the patients charts looking for reasons for the difficulties and found them. I then went through our supplies and picked out what I would need to do the dirty deed.
The first patient was the easiest but the most painful. He was an older male with Prstate Cancer. His Prostate had swollen to the point where it was almost closing off his Urethra. I was able to catheterise him by using a much smaller catheter than is carried in our usual kits.
The second patient was much more difficult because she was an extremely obese female patient. In order for me to catheterise her I needed a different system.
The cath. kits come with a small amount of Betadyne and maybe six Cotton Balls to put this in place. They also have a total of one pair of sterile gloves. I grabbed a sterile basin and a large bottle of Betadyne, a bag of Cotton Balls and several pairs of gloves. I also grabbed my boss and another R.N. as helpers in sterile gloves to help me pull back tissue. It took me half an hour of cleaning and moving skin but finally I was able to get the catheter in place. (Not to mention half a gallon of soapy water and more than a dozen washclothes to pre clean what was an extremely filthy person, peeeeeew.)
My Boss made the comment after that she was going to push it through that I was allowed to put in Catheters. (Oh Joys.
)
One of the younger R.N's happened to overhear this and made the comment that my boss should reconsider this because my taking so long to catheterise the female patient showed I was being way too sexual in my approach to this kind of work.
My reply was classic Cat and got me written up but had it's desired effect. I reached into the linen bag from the room and pulled out a used Washcloth, stuck it under the R.N.'s nose and told her to identify the scents and their ensueing problems. After she recoiled from the soiled washcloth I started listing them.
Stool in the Vaginal Area. (E. Coli.)
Vaginal Yeast Infection. Major infection risk.
Old Urine
Basic Body Grunge. (Staf. A.)
In other words by my attention to detail I had prevented a probable Hospital Aquired Infection, one that I pointed out that she wouldn't have avoided. I then pointed out my standing feeling about sexuality in Nursing. Anyone who was turned on by caring for another person in our situation needed to be booted out of the Nursing Field and their License revoked, that included youngsters like her.
Like I said I got written up for insubordination. My Boss did tell me however that she liked my message, just not the way I delivered it.
Cat
I listened to the screams of pain coming from one room and the grumbles of the R.N.'s in both cases. I didn't say anything until the R.N.'s declared that they had been beat and it would need a surgeon to get the catheters in place. That's when i stepped forward and told my boss she could save face, not have to call in a surgeon to do a simple job any R.N. should be able to do. She looked at me and thought about it for a minute then told me she would break the rule she had instituted and allow me to do the deed.
(Several years ago my hospital had a problem with U.T.I.'s caused by Catheters being inserted in an unsanitary manner. My Boss felt it was being caused by the C.N.A.'s inserting the catheters while not following Sterile Field Protocols. She was proved wrong in this assesment but her ban on C.N.A.'s inserting Catheters was kept in place due to office politics.)
I reviewed the patients charts looking for reasons for the difficulties and found them. I then went through our supplies and picked out what I would need to do the dirty deed.
The first patient was the easiest but the most painful. He was an older male with Prstate Cancer. His Prostate had swollen to the point where it was almost closing off his Urethra. I was able to catheterise him by using a much smaller catheter than is carried in our usual kits.
The second patient was much more difficult because she was an extremely obese female patient. In order for me to catheterise her I needed a different system.
The cath. kits come with a small amount of Betadyne and maybe six Cotton Balls to put this in place. They also have a total of one pair of sterile gloves. I grabbed a sterile basin and a large bottle of Betadyne, a bag of Cotton Balls and several pairs of gloves. I also grabbed my boss and another R.N. as helpers in sterile gloves to help me pull back tissue. It took me half an hour of cleaning and moving skin but finally I was able to get the catheter in place. (Not to mention half a gallon of soapy water and more than a dozen washclothes to pre clean what was an extremely filthy person, peeeeeew.)
My Boss made the comment after that she was going to push it through that I was allowed to put in Catheters. (Oh Joys.
)One of the younger R.N's happened to overhear this and made the comment that my boss should reconsider this because my taking so long to catheterise the female patient showed I was being way too sexual in my approach to this kind of work.
My reply was classic Cat and got me written up but had it's desired effect. I reached into the linen bag from the room and pulled out a used Washcloth, stuck it under the R.N.'s nose and told her to identify the scents and their ensueing problems. After she recoiled from the soiled washcloth I started listing them.
Stool in the Vaginal Area. (E. Coli.)
Vaginal Yeast Infection. Major infection risk.
Old Urine
Basic Body Grunge. (Staf. A.)
In other words by my attention to detail I had prevented a probable Hospital Aquired Infection, one that I pointed out that she wouldn't have avoided. I then pointed out my standing feeling about sexuality in Nursing. Anyone who was turned on by caring for another person in our situation needed to be booted out of the Nursing Field and their License revoked, that included youngsters like her.
Like I said I got written up for insubordination. My Boss did tell me however that she liked my message, just not the way I delivered it.
Cat
