Going potty – improving waiting times in Children’s Emergency
Hospital Care

Going potty – improving waiting times in Children’s Emergency

Urine testing is a simple check that can provide important medical information on patients – but what if your patients aren’t yet toilet trained?

Toilet training toddlers can be a highly frustrating process for parents and carers. Factoring in a strange environment and a need for the process to be rushed, it can be almost impossible to get your toddler to ‘go potty’.

Currently, there are no ‘best practice’ guidelines in place for urine collection in children’s emergency departments. This means it’s not only hard to collect samples, but a large amount of samples collected may be contaminated due to the lack of understanding around the procedure. Jeanette Probyn is undertaking a practical research project, aiming to make collecting those urine samples from infants and young children easier.

She is researching techniques to make the urine collection process for infants and toddlers cleaner and more efficient. With a best practice in place, there will be less contaminated urine samples, less screaming toddlers in the waiting room, and happier families from the faster results healthcare professionals will be able to provide.

The Prince Charles Hospital

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Published: July 29, 2019

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