Medical education impact assessment: knowledge of final year medical students of Obafemi Awolowo University about male urethral catheterization.

BACKGROUND

Urethral catheterization is one of the commonest procedures performed by doctors either for prophylactic, diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. The medical education impact of this procedure on graduating medical students was assessed using a structured questionnaire.

METHOD: This is a questionnaire--based study and the respondents were final year medical students who have completed their final examinations.

RESULTS

There were 86 respondents with M:F ratio of 1. About a third of the respondents have not done urethral catheterization during their training while only 7% have done the procedure more than 5 times. All the students know that urethral catheterization is a sterile procedure and 96% knew that sterile gloves should be donned during the procedure. 92.4% of the respondents knew that skin preparation was necessary during the procedure with 75% of them responding that cetriomide and chlorhexidine solution was appropriate. 54% of the students used xylocaine as lubricant while 46% used KY Jelly. On the quantity of the lubricant for catheterization, only 2.7% of the respondents felt that 11-15 mls should be injected into the urethra. On the maximum amount of fluid to retain the balloon, only 36% of the students responded that it should be according to the specified capacity of the balloon. Majority of the students (88%) know that the catheter should get to the Y-junction before it is inflated.

CONCLUSION

Most of the students in this study were taught appropriately the procedure of urethral catheterization; however about a third had not performed the procedure as a medical student.