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The surgery clerkship: an opportunity for preclinical credentialing in urinary catheterization
Rachel L Yang1, Caroline E Reinke, Mayank K Mittal
1Department of Surgery, University of Pennsylvania Health System, 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Background:
At our hospital, medical students lost privileges to perform urinary catheterization because of concern regarding catheter-associated urinary tract infections. We hypothesized that trained medical students could perform urinary catheterization with the same proficiency as licensed practitioners.
Methods:
Medical students completed a credentialing program in urinary catheterization. Prospectively, the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections after urinary catheterization performed by medical students was compared with the health system-wide rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections after urinary catheterization performed by non-medical students using an incidence rate ratio (IRR).
Results:
Over 9 months, a total of 432 and 55,401 catheter days accrued in patients who underwent urinary catheterization by medial students and non-medical students, resulting in 1 and 129 catheter-associated urinary tract infections, respectively. The incidence rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections per 1,000 catheter days was 2.31 in the medical student-placed catheters and 2.33 in the non-MS-placed catheters (IRR = .99, P = .55).
Conclusions:
Preclinical credentialing in urinary catheterization resulted in the reinstatement of urinary catheterization privileges to qualified medical students. Student proficiency in urinary catheterization can match that of licensed practitioners.
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