When cleaning a female catheter, which direction should you move the cloth with each stroke?

• A. Toward the meatus
• B. Away from the meatus
• C. In a circular motion around the meatus
• D. Diagonally toward the abdomen

Answer: (B)

The important idea here is infection prevention during female catheter care. Clean strokes should move away from the urethral opening, starting at the meatus and wiping outward toward the surrounding perineal area. This direction helps keep bacteria that may be present near the anus from being dragged toward the urethral opening and the catheter, reducing the risk of introducing infection.

Wiping toward the meatus would push potential contaminants toward the urethral opening, increasing infection risk. A circular motion around the meatus doesn’t establish a consistent front-to-back or clean-to-dirty progression, and diagonally toward the abdomen isn’t aligned with the proper flow of cleaning. Use a fresh cloth section for each stroke and move outward from the meatus with each pass.