The aim of part one of the study was to describe the experiences of
patients living with the urinary catheter from a literature study of existing
research studies. Databases such as CINAHL, Medline, and PsyINFO were used in
searching for the documents of which ten articles were found to be relevant in
relation to the aim of the study. It was found that most of the studies were
carried out in New York. Hence there was a need for other researches to be done
in other communities.
The aim of the empirical study was to describe the lived experiences
of patients with long term indwelling urinary catheter in Cameroon.
A purposive sample of six subjects with ages ranging from 34-78 yrs
from Mbingo baptist hospital living with the indwelling urinary catheter were
included in the study with the duration of living with the urinary catheter
ranging from 3months –2,1/2 yrs.
The data collection method was a face-to-face interview between
the author and the participants that lasted from 30-1hr, which were audiotape
and transcribed from Pidgin to English by means of the content analytic method.
Themes such as, communication gap, financial difficulties, loss
of ones dignity, pain, the device being important and unimportant, the device a
‘killer’, hindrance to daily activities, and consciousness of the proper
functioning of the urinary catheter.
From the interview with the participants with the long term
indwelling urinary catheter, participants faced a lot of difficulties and even
during their meetings with the healthcare professional, which showed lack of
understanding between the participants and the healthcare professionals.
Interview with the participants showed that for proper functioning of the
catheter to be achieved care was emphasized on the drainage tube and clamp.
Health care professional should be conscious of the fact that
communication should be...
