I wanted to get your feedback on this issue as I observe this intermittently across varying OR’s and I wondered who should take ownership or is it a collective level of responsibility?
The IDC (indwelling catheter) may have been placed by the surgical team, nurse or OR professional, once insitu, who is responsible for monitoring the urine output and if needed updating the fluid balance chart?
I have observed catheters not draining as the catheter was kinked after positioning the patient and this was only observed after I had completed a surgical count, connected equipment and opened all supplies, as a circulator there are other priorities which take place.
I have also observed the catheter being full, requiring a jug to empty it intra-operatively, and the other day the catheter had not drained anything after 1.5hrs into the case.
There are a number of reasons why the urine was not draining, this is for another blog, however my main concern is, who should be responsible for observing and monitoring urine output intra-operatively, or is it a collective level of responsibility?