Relevant systematic reviews and guidelines do not mention having more than one person insert an urinary catheter.

Following are citations and links to full text for three items in which two people worked together to insert catheters:

Galiczewski JM, Shurpin KM. An intervention to improve the catheter associated urinary tract infection rate in a medical intensive care unit: Direct observation of catheter insertion procedure. Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2017 Jun;40:26-34. doi: 10.1016/j.iccn.2016.12.003. Epub 2017 Feb 22. Excerpt: “CAUTI rates decreased from 2.24 to 0 per 1000 catheter days.” Three comments are available on this article. To view them, go here, and then copy and paste this url into the browser so that the Find it & Emory button will be available: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/1HMKnKhQm_d5i/collections/58794408/public/.

Fletcher-Gutowski S, Cecil J. Is 2-person urinary catheter insertion effective in reducing CAUTI? Am J Infect Control. 2019 Jul 16. pii: S0196-6553(19)30575-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2019.05.014. [Epub ahead of print]. Excerpt: “The results of this study indicate implementation of the 2-person urinary catheter insertion protocol with a checklist decreased the risk of CAUTI for our patient population.”

Breiter Y et al. 9-186 – Catheter-associated urinary tract infection reduction in the emergency department as a result of dual personnel urinary catheter insertion. American Journal of Infection Control. 2016;44:6(S88-S89). (this is only an abstract; 201 patients underwent dual personnel urinary catheter insertion; none developed a CAUTI)

Heudorf U. Grünewald M, Otto U. Implementation of the updated 2015 Commission for Hospital Hygiene and Infection Prevention (KRINKO) recommendations “Prevention and control of catheter-associated urinary tract infections” in the hospitals in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. GMS Hyg Infect Control. 2016 Jun 30;11:Doc14. doi: 10.3205/dgkh000274. eCollection 2016. Excerpt: “demonstrations were always performed by two persons (the second to hand the sterile materials to the first).”

Updated 8/23/2019 ldt