Oral and Nasal Suctioning

Medical oral and nasal suction is the mechanical removal of secretions or obstructions to maintain a patent airway and provide comfort. The use of suction is an important part of care in multiple settings. There are a range of devices available and include wall mounted units, portable units and hand held manual units. Due to the wide range of suction units available it is important to familiarise yourself with the equipment available in your clinical area and its use.

The use of suction may either be an ongoing element of an individual's care or required in an emergency. Exposure to suctioning as a student is much more likely to be related to routine patient care as both the frequency of exposure to emergent airway suction needs and the ongoing associated airway support requirements make this an unlikely practice based opportunity.

Read the illustrated guide to oral and nasal suctioning on ClinicalSkills.net here: 

You will need to be logged into ClinicalSkills.net to use these pages: Go to ClinicalSkills.net, click login at the top, enter your user name and password. You must have set up your account to do this. For further information on how to login to your ClinicalSkills.net account please click here: How to Login to ClinicalSkills.net

Suctioning 

Click on the button below to navigate to the 'Take a Test' area of ClinicalSkills.net. Please make sure you're logged into ClinicalSkills.net already, otherwise you may not be able to open and take the test. Once you have reached the 'Take a Test' area, select 'Standard Tests' and then click on the test called 'Medical gases and suction' to begin. You will need to score 80% or more to pass. Make sure you've read the ClinicalSkills.net procedure thoroughly before taking the test as many of the answers will be found within there!

Here is the paper version of the procedural checklist, which you can open here (and print if required):

National Library of Medicine: Airway suctioning

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557386/ 

Respiratory Therapy Zone: Airway suctioning

www.respiratorytherapyzone.com/suctioning-study-guide 

Date reviewed: 

Next review: August 2023