The procedure is done 1000's of times per day across the U.S. by nurses, medical assistants and other healthcare professionals. There is even a program for patients to "cath" themselves.
It's not rocket science but has some risks of complications including infection. If the procedures are followed correctly, complication are minimized and the procedure is effective and often necessary in the healthcare of the patient. Unless....
Unless of course you fail to understand the anatomy. In the female, the urethral opening is located anterior (toward the front) to the both the vagina opening and the anus.
Earlier this year, I heard a cry for assistance from a nurse in the OR. "I think there is poop coming out of her urethra. does she have a fistula?" I gloved up and made the attempt to assist her as she struggled with the procedure. But very quickly I recognized that she was attempting to place the urinary catheter into the rectum through the anus. A normal place for poop to be located.
It was everything I could to do to laugh out loud, but behind my mask, I had the biggest grin you can imagine.
She thanked me profusely for assisting and pointing out her problem with the very complicated female anatomy.
Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness. 
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