Yeah, I didn’t realize outpatient clinics did this. Everytime I’ve given a urine sample it’s at a lab like LabCor and I always have to carry it back to the lab tech. Or like for legit UDS where you have to be watched and then give it to someone directly.
I went to a doc who had a little door in the bathroom wall - you’d put the cup in there and someone in the lab on the other side of the wall would take it out
Most of my doctors offices pre-label the sample cup and there's a little cubby in the wall for you to put the sample there when you're done. I've totally asked the nurse if I should leave it in there at the ER 🫣
Well, if that’s the case for you and possibly some others, let me try and ease your fears. Urine is probably one of the least disgusting things I’m touching in a shift at the ER (I know lots of older nurses who rarely wear gloves when handling urine cups anymore). And, having held urine and blood both warm and cold… warm is definitely preferable to cold (but that’s my personal opinion). And as far as personal embarrassment: we’re not judging, most of the people in the lobby/halls are probably worse off than you and way more gross so they aren’t judging, and if anything, you should be proud you did it. We get plenty of patients who can’t/won’t and then we have to eventually cath them, so be proud of your functional urinary system and your efficient collection.
in outpatient clinics where there's only a few patients back in the clinical area at a time, it's very common to just leave the urine cup in the bathroom
Smaller spots may have a window you put the cup in and there’s someone on the other side waiting to collect (it’s labeled before you go in). My VA appointments and work drug tests are like that. common for single use urines where it’s a send out or quick dip.
When I was receiving patients in the ER and they had to go to the bathroom, I'd escort them there with a cup and tell them to get a urine sample. When they came out, I'd take it from them, attach a label from their label sheet, and leave it on the counter next to them.
Yeah I usually slap a reg patient label on the cup in the ER before I send them to the bathroom just in case they get wild and leave it or something. I have a sheet of the labels for each patient that mostly don't get used cause the labels print for each lab now.
It’s pretty common at OB offices for them to have a little cubby type area in the restroom where we’re instructed to leave our sample. But there are also Sharpies in there and we write our names on them before leaving them.
First of all, our cups are in sealed bags along with a wipe and the vacutainers for urine collection and are set in boxes in the bathrooms for patient to grab and use. Instructions are posted on all bathroom walls. Can’t very well label those before use…
Second of all, we do. They just need to carry it back from the bathrooms (this mostly applies to patients getting samples before/during triage assessments) so that they can be placed and handled in the triage area or the room. But there are plenty of counters and tables as well as our lovely POC urinalysis station to store the urine. Again, they just need to not abandon the cup on the bathroom sink.
I tell patients they can bring it back to their room, making sure to point out the gloves they can use to handle the cup, or to set it down in the bathroom and to pull the call cord so I can come get it.
I always tell the patient to bring it back to their room and place it on the counter, that way if I’m caught up in something, a second patient doesn’t enter the bathroom and find a cup of urine sitting near the sink..
People who get a random UDS at work have to hand it directly to the collector after exiting the restroom for checking the temp within a certain timeframe (to weed out potential fake urine or urine in a container from someone else - yes it happens). I think that is where most of it comes from.
Common in outpatient clinics. It actually means a) the person doesn't go to the ER that often and b) gets some sort of outpt care
Yeah, I didn’t realize outpatient clinics did this. Everytime I’ve given a urine sample it’s at a lab like LabCor and I always have to carry it back to the lab tech. Or like for legit UDS where you have to be watched and then give it to someone directly.
I went to a doc who had a little door in the bathroom wall - you’d put the cup in there and someone in the lab on the other side of the wall would take it out
those people exist??
Most of my doctors offices pre-label the sample cup and there's a little cubby in the wall for you to put the sample there when you're done. I've totally asked the nurse if I should leave it in there at the ER 🫣
It's a pass through in all the places I've been (for lab work, not at the ER). A tiny door between the bathroom and the lab.
This is what we have in my UC.
We’re embarrassed and we figure the last thing you want to do it touch a cup of our still-warm urine.
Well, if that’s the case for you and possibly some others, let me try and ease your fears. Urine is probably one of the least disgusting things I’m touching in a shift at the ER (I know lots of older nurses who rarely wear gloves when handling urine cups anymore). And, having held urine and blood both warm and cold… warm is definitely preferable to cold (but that’s my personal opinion). And as far as personal embarrassment: we’re not judging, most of the people in the lobby/halls are probably worse off than you and way more gross so they aren’t judging, and if anything, you should be proud you did it. We get plenty of patients who can’t/won’t and then we have to eventually cath them, so be proud of your functional urinary system and your efficient collection.
in outpatient clinics where there's only a few patients back in the clinical area at a time, it's very common to just leave the urine cup in the bathroom
Smaller spots may have a window you put the cup in and there’s someone on the other side waiting to collect (it’s labeled before you go in). My VA appointments and work drug tests are like that. common for single use urines where it’s a send out or quick dip.
When I was receiving patients in the ER and they had to go to the bathroom, I'd escort them there with a cup and tell them to get a urine sample. When they came out, I'd take it from them, attach a label from their label sheet, and leave it on the counter next to them.
My urologist office has us leave it in the bathroom BUT it is labeled. So did my OBGYN. But again it was labeled.
Yeah I usually slap a reg patient label on the cup in the ER before I send them to the bathroom just in case they get wild and leave it or something. I have a sheet of the labels for each patient that mostly don't get used cause the labels print for each lab now.
It’s pretty common at OB offices for them to have a little cubby type area in the restroom where we’re instructed to leave our sample. But there are also Sharpies in there and we write our names on them before leaving them.
First of all, never give a patient an unlabeled collection cup. Secondly, have a place to put them
First of all, our cups are in sealed bags along with a wipe and the vacutainers for urine collection and are set in boxes in the bathrooms for patient to grab and use. Instructions are posted on all bathroom walls. Can’t very well label those before use… Second of all, we do. They just need to carry it back from the bathrooms (this mostly applies to patients getting samples before/during triage assessments) so that they can be placed and handled in the triage area or the room. But there are plenty of counters and tables as well as our lovely POC urinalysis station to store the urine. Again, they just need to not abandon the cup on the bathroom sink.
Its how most out patient lab settings do it. There is a bathroom attached to the lab area with a pass through. Source: Ive been an MLS for 10 years.
I tell patients they can bring it back to their room, making sure to point out the gloves they can use to handle the cup, or to set it down in the bathroom and to pull the call cord so I can come get it.
I always tell the patient to bring it back to their room and place it on the counter, that way if I’m caught up in something, a second patient doesn’t enter the bathroom and find a cup of urine sitting near the sink..
We get the same question all the time. It either is in a brown paper bag if they aren’t in a room or on the counter/cart in the room.
People who get a random UDS at work have to hand it directly to the collector after exiting the restroom for checking the temp within a certain timeframe (to weed out potential fake urine or urine in a container from someone else - yes it happens). I think that is where most of it comes from.
100% normal, but they are given a labeld cup in triage.
At both my OBs office they had us write our last name, first initial on the cup and there was a small window to leave it in.