The adult male genitourinary system generates several conditions that require skilled home-health care — urinary retention from prostatic obstruction, post-operative recovery after prostate or other urologic surgery, and a small number of true surgical emergencies such as testicular torsion and an incarcerated hernia. The skilled value of this domain is managing catheters and post-operative recovery, recognizing retention and complications, and identifying the emergencies, all while protecting the patient’s dignity. Documentation that records “no complaints” without the assessment does not prove a nurse was required; managing retention or recognizing a surgical emergency does.
The purpose of this module is to give the clinician the framework for the clinical male genitourinary assessment — prostatic and voiding status, the scrotal and testicular exam, and post-operative urologic care — and the chartable language that demonstrates observation and assessment, skilled procedure, and teaching and training, performed with consent, privacy, and a chaperone per policy, with the bladder and catheter routed to Urinary/Renal.
