Clean Catch Urine (Nursing)

00:00 Hi! Welcome to our video series on interpreting lab values.

00:05 In this one. We're kind of get a little personal because we're talking about a clean catch urine sample.

00:12 Now this isn't a real glamorous test, but it is an important one and one that you do very commonly in your practice.

00:18 So, what's the goal? What is a clean catch? Well, the target is which is why I have an arrow there for you on the screen as you want to prevent the bacteria from the skin of the penis or the vagina from contaminating the urine specimen.

00:33 That's why it's called a clean catch.

00:36 Okay, so I don't want the external bacteria to contaminate the sample because I'm looking for the internal bacteria that's what I want to treat.

00:46 I don't want to treat the external bacteria.

00:49 So you're going to have to instruct the patient on how they can clean themselves because we want to make sure they minimize the bacteria from the skin around the urinary opening from contaminating the urine specimen.

01:01 This is where it gets really personal.

01:04 Now you can instruct the patient on how to do this for themselves.

01:07 You've probably done this in the physician's office.

01:10 Male patients who are not circumcised will need to retract the foreskin before cleaning the head of the penis.

01:16 Female patients will need to clean around the urinary meatus by holding the labia apart and wiping from front to back with a separate towellete on the right, the left, and then in the middle.

01:29 Think about when you're being a female patient we do the same things with the swaps right, left, and then the middle, you want to instruct them to do the same thing with the wipes.

01:40 Now here's where clean catcher and gets a little tricky and usually a little messy.

01:46 I've got three toilets there for you to help you understand this concept because the patient is going to need to start to urinate, stop the urinary stream and restart the stream after placing the specimen cup to collect a sample.

02:01 Yeah, I got a million stories about this but none of that is appropriate.

02:06 So let's just focus on getting the target the job done.

02:10 You've instructed the patient on how to clean themselves to make sure that external bacteria doesn't get into the sample.

02:17 Now, they're going to need to start their stream, stop it then get the cup in position to collect the sample and restart their stream.

02:25 Now it's actually a lot easier for men than it is for females to do this.

02:30 Men have a lot more directional stream women kind of have a sprinkler.

02:34 So just let them know you've got towels in there for them to clean up afterwards because unless you're really proficient at this this can be a little messy.

02:43 So start the stream, stop it, put the cup in, collect the sample.

02:49 That's what a clean catch urine sample is.

02:52 Now they're gonna have to label the specimen.

02:54 Usually before you give them the specimen cup you want to put the label on it, so you've got the right patient identification information on the cup.

03:02 Now if you've done this at the doctor's office usually go into a private bathroom, you collect the specimen and then they have a special place for you to put the cup.

03:11 If you're in the hospital setting, you'll be involved in making sure this is properly labeled and makes it down to the lab for testing.

03:18 Now labels can be filled out by hand or usually we use pre-printed labels.

03:23 But either way works fine, as long as the specimen is labeled with the date and the time of the collection along with the patient's name.