Urethral catheterization:The need for adequate undergraduate exposure

Introduction: Urethral catheterization is one of the basic skills expected of any intern. This is an important procedure which if not properly learnt and done leads to various complications. Objectives: To assess the knowledge and practice of urethral catheterization among new interns in University of Benin Teaching Hospital as a measure of their undergraduate exposure to the procedure. Subjects and methods: The study was carried out by administering questionnaire to all newly recruited house officers in the hospital. The component of the questionnaire included questions on knowledge of urethral catheterization procedure and precautionary methods taken while carrying out the procedure. Also assessed was the need for the demonstration of this procedure to newly recruited house officers. Permission for this study was obtained from the hospitals ethical committee. The result of the study was analysed using SPSS package. Results: There were 60 respondents who all graduated from medical schools in Nigeria except 2 Nigerian European graduates. All were able to define urethral catheterization. Forty percent had formal demonstration of urethral catheterization procedure during their undergraduate years. All the respondents observed urethral catheterization as undergraduates. About 33.3% did not perform the procedure as undergraduates while only 6.7% passed more than 10 urethral catheters. A total of 65.8% were able to describe the steps involved in urethral catheterization while only 20% used appropriate lubricant. Of the respondents 91.7% could list the possible complications of catheterization while 83.3% indicated that there is need for practical demonstration of urethral catheterization procedure during internship period. Conclusion: Newly recruited interns have poor practical exposure to urethral catheterization. Efforts should be made to improve the quality of supervised training given to medical undergraduates so as to avoid complications that could arise if this procedure is not properly done when they qualify