At the Rotary Club’s handover dinner, members offered to donate $2000 to Karingal to purchase equipment.
Karingal chief executive and director of nursing Elizabeth Duggin said the new addition would make it easier to assess residents.
“The bladder scanner on site, it means that people can be assessed for retention of urine, whether they’ve got a catheter in place or not,” she said.
“Then we can assess what further needs to occur.
“For example, someone goes into retention. Prior to this, we would normally use normal assessment skills.
“They would have to be transferred to a hospital for scanning.
“Now, we’ll be able to do the scan here.”
A bladder scanner is similar to an ultrasound device.
“It basically can measure the capacity of fluid within the bladder,” Ms Duggin said.
“If someone is, for example, going into retention or is unable to pass urine, we can actually assess how much urine is in their bladder.
“What can happen is if someone has a catheter in, the catheter can become blocked.
“Therefore, they’re unable to drain urine out of their bladder.
“Now, we can do an ultrasonic assessment on what fluid is within the bladder.”
A Rotary spokesperson said the club was excited to provide Karingal Aged Care with $2000 towards the purchase of the bladder scanner.
“This machine is vital in identifying and assessing the volume in the bladder and whether there is retention,” the spokesperson said.
“The scanner allows Karingal to have independence in monitoring the resident population without having to send them to hospital.”
“It also enables early intervention for blocked catheters.”
Ms Duggin said staff members had suggested looking into bladder scanners after receiving the donation, as they had looked into it before.
“The staff are really excited to have the equipment here,” she said.
“It means that further assessment can be done on a person prior to them needing to be sent to hospital for further care.”
Ms Duggin extended her appreciation to the Rotary Club of Seymour.
“I want to thank the Rotary Club for their kind donation, and for the ongoing support for Karingal Seymour,” she said.
