A nurse cares for a client who is prescribed a 24-hour urine collection. The unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP) reports that, while pouring urine into the collection container, some urine splashed his hand. Which action should the nurse take next?

Question

a. Ask the UAP if he washed his hands afterward.
b. Have the UAP fill out an incident report.
c. Ask the laboratory if the container has preservative in it.
d. Send the UAP to Employee Health right away.

Answer 1

ANS: A
For safety, the nurse should find out if the UAP washed his or her hands. The UAP should do this for two reasons. First, it is part of Standard Precautions to wash hands after client care. Second, if the container did have preservative in it, this would wash it away. The preservative may be caustic to the skin. The nurse can call the laboratory while the UAP is washing hands, if needed. The UAP would then need to fill out an incident or exposure report and may or may not need to go to Employee Health. The UAP also needs further education on Standard Precautions, which include wearing gloves.