Foleys

My last lab was all about catheters. Catheters scare me. They're the first invasive thing we're learning, and it's not on a place that is "modest". Couldn't they teach us something less embarrassing first!? Of course not... that would take the fun away from being a nurse educator. As we sat there watching in a bit of horror how far that tubing goes into someone I kept thinking to myself there is no way I can do this. I just can't. It's gross. Why can't I just put them on a diaper. I don't mind cleaning those. Our dummies went back and forth between male and female. It's quite interesting to have a female genetelia on a dummy without breasts. It kind of throws you off a little.
After all the demonstrations I thought it was doable, and then I started thinking of what it would be like to do it on a real person. That got me excited. Yes it's gross, yes it's awkward at first, yes I may fall over backwards when I first attempt to do it, but it's actual nursing stuff! It's not something I can delegate to my tech. It's a sterile procedure. It's beautiful.
I'm going to try to be the nurse that doesn't embarrass the patient to death, after all this is probably more humiliating to them than it is to me. I'm going to practice so I know how to do it correctly and my patients will be at a lower risk for and UTI. I'm going to keep them modest as much as I can. I'm going to make this invasive procedure as comfortable as possible.

And now a little student nurse humor:
(click on it to make it bigger)