Question

The client has urinary catheter with diminished urine flow. There is an order to irrigate the Foley catheter PRN. Which initial action should the nurse take prior to irrigating the Foley catheter?

a) gently instill the irrigation solution into the catheter port

b) clean the distal end of the catheter with alcohol swab

c) draw up 300 cc of normal saline in a bulb syringe

d) palpate the abdomen for bladder distention

Answer 1

Answer B. Clean the distal end of the catheter with alcohol swab.

The indwelling catheter and the collecting bag should not be disconnected. Because there will be microorganisms colonised over the external catheter surfaces, mostly like a biofilm. So any disconnection between the catheter and collecting tubing system will lead to portal of entry of these microorganisms in to the bladder. So in the case of bladder irrigation after disconnecting catheter from the tubing distal end of catheter should be cleaned using alcohol swab to prevent infection.

All other options are performed after this step only.