Am I right or my teacher?!

[Tobenursemj]

Care must be taken in handling nasal and bronchial secretions of a patient with bacterial pneumonia primarily because:

A: suctioning is contraindicated in patients with pneumonia

B: the secretions may be highly contagious.

This question was on my exam. I chose A obviously correct answer was B. I know secretions are contagious but for some reason I thought suctioning wasn't suppose to be done with pneumonia due to bacteria spreading other places while taking suctioning out and I thought they wanted people with pneumonia to cough it out themselves. I was wondering if I'm a total dumbass and read the answer wrong or if there was some backup to why I answered A. Please help!! If you have any articles or websites backing up my answer please list.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

Oral suctioning would not be contaminate the airway; physiology normally prevents oral contents from entering the respiratory tract. Deep suctioning is normally performed with a sterile suction catheter, minimizing contamination. If the client is not oxygenating due to secretions, suctioning may be vital to survival.

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

Oops- accidentally voted for A instead of B.

[mkk99]

Your own reasoning states that the bacteria are highly contagious!

[Lev, MSN, RN, NP]

Oops- accidentally voted for A instead of B. Don't think I can unvote unfortunately.

[OrganizedChaos, LVN]

Why wouldn't you suction someone who has pneumonia? If someone's airway needs to be cleared you would suction them.

Of course secretions of someone bacterial pneumonia are contagious.

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

Well ideally, the pt would cough the secretions up themselves, but if they can't cough them up themselves they're of course going to need help clearing them. They may be frail, malnourished, or simply have too much pain to cough effectively (I see that a lot with post thoracic surgery pts...one of our surgeons is pretty stingy with pain meds.) If they're intubated, even if they do have a strong cough they're going to cough those secretions right into their artificial airway, obstructing it.

Contraindicated means it's never appropriate. Plan A would be for the pt to cough and clear his own secretions; plan B is for the RN or RRT to assist, and that is done by suctioning.

[ArtClassRN, ADN, RN]

ABC

KISS

[roser13, ASN, RN]

We can't explain why you answered the way you did. Answer A is incorrect and a dangerous thought process.

[nursel56]

The apparent urgency of your request suggests you may be planning to argue the point with your instructor. I wouldn't go that route on this one. Sometimes people post their incorrect answers and find nurses seeing merit in the student's interpretation. Such is not the case here, but it doesn't mean you're a total dumbass and read the answer wrong. You read the answers accurately but chose the wrong one.

For better or worse, if at some point there is a completely valid reason to challenge a test question, having a prior issue affects the way subsequent complaints will be viewed.

Ignore the above if I misunderstood your post.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

Being wrong doesn't make you "a total dumbass." It simply means you were wrong.

And you were wrong. B is the correct answer. Also, notice that your instructor use the word "primarily." That word will be very important in the future when you see several answers which all seem to be correct.

[Rocknurse, MSN, APRN, NP]

The answer is in the question folks. Answer A doesn't even make sense in relation to the question. B is the obvious answer. It is very necessary in the ICU to suction patients with pneumonia if their SP02 is