Royal College of Nursing guidance on catheter care

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has updated its guidance on catheter care. An already well-established document, which has been widely used in practice, teaching and policy making, this updated edition aims to encourage further adoption of the National Occupational Standards. It also reflects Nursing and Midwifery Council guidance around the standards that nurses must maintain throughout their careers to keep their knowledge and skills up to date.

The guidance has been developed as a resource and framework for practice for any healthcare professional who performs urinary catheterisation (this may be a registered practitioner or an unregistered practitioner working under the guidance or supervision of someone on a professional register). To this end, we have highlighted below some specific ways in which the guidance can be used with students or other healthcare professionals in an educational manner.
 

Catheter care-related competences

In 2006, the RCN and Skills for Health identified a need for competences related to continence care. The following six areas related to catheter care were included in this competence suite, and remain key to the updated guidance.

1. Insert and secure urethral catheters
2. Monitor, and help individuals to self-monitor, urethral catheters
3. Manage suprapubic catheters
4. Undertake a trial without catheter
5. Enable individuals to carry out intermittent self-catheterisation
6. Review catheter care.

The aims of this updated publication are the same – to produce further clarity and depth to the six competences related to aspects of catheter care. The RCN notes that this guidance is not a compendium of evidence and many of the statements are based on clinical experience and expert opinion.
 

Clinical aspects

While the guidance merits thorough reading, with each section having both references and additional recommended reading lists at the end of the document, those sections that will be of particular interest to members of the Clinical Leadership Programme include:

• Reasons for, and decisions influencing, catheterisation
• Risk assessment
• Catheter-related equipment
• Intermittent self-catheterisation
• Catheter care review and follow up
• Patient education
• Infection control and catheter care

Delegating to and teaching others

The document also includes sections which will be useful when working with and teaching students, healthcare assistants and other healthcare professionals. These include consent, anatomy and physiology, delegation, documentation, and legislation, policy and good practice. It also contains five practically-focussed appendices, which cover the following areas and will be particularly useful for learning and reference purposes for those new to catheterisation:

• Urinary catheter and related equipment
• Removal of urethral catheter
• Urethral catheterisation procedures for male and female patients
• Suprapubic catheterisation procedure
• Guidance at a glance—urinary catheters

 
So download your copy from the RCN website https://www.rcn.org.uk/Professional-Development/publications/rcn-catheter-care-guidance-uk-pub-010-988 and make sure that you and your team are up to date with best practice in catheter care.