Suctioning mouth with the same catheter used to suction lungs?!?!

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Ok tell me if im the only one who's totally grossed out by this!

I take care of a woman with a trach/vent, etc...so she had to go to the hospital last week and while i was there I myself (and another caregiver on a seperate occasion) saw the nurse deep suction her lungs AND then use the same suction catheter, stick it in her mouth and use it to suction oral secretions EWWW im just a nursing student but i thought it was wrong...would you want your lung secretions in your mouth? plus she had a lung infection too so it was even more disgusting. Its called a Yankaeur for a reason!

ahhh just a vent here....

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Specializes in SICU.

Not sure just what you saw but a yankaeur will not go down a trach into the lungs. A suction cathereter will and it is ok to suction the mouth after the lungs. You are going from clean to dirty.

What do you think is in your mouth when you cough, if not lung secretions?

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Specializes in Cardiac.
...would you want your lung secretions in your mouth? ....

Lol, what do you think all those secretions in your mouth are from???

My suction catheter is connected to the ETT, so I can't use it to suction the mouth. But otherwise, I see nothing wrong with it...

BTW, a Yankaeur cannot go into the lungs. At best, it's possible to push it into the top of the trachea, but that's never done.

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

The catheters (usually a 12 French) are single use, so I don't see the problem using them for one round of suctioning -- first deep suctioning, then oral cavity. As another poster said, you're going from clean to dirty. The Yankeur would be used for the oral cavity only.

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no it was a suction catheter used...not a yankaeur lol (i was saying that the yankaeur should have been used). well if I had a lung infection i wouldnt want the suction catheter used in my mouth again personally if the yankauer is sitting there available. I know its the same secretions but the catheter actually goes into your lungs. meh maybe it was just me that thought it was gross lol

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Specializes in Emergency & Trauma/Adult ICU.

As has been said, what's in your lungs makes its way to your mouth.

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ok ok i guess im the minority here :) lol

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Specializes in Cardiac.

The Yankaeur is filthy too, and if fact, is rarely single use. I'd rather not have a Yankaeur in my mouth actually.

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.

As far as nursing practice is concerned it is perfectly OK. But personally if I were suctioning my own lungs, I would want to switch to a oral swab dipped in peppermint mouth wash for my oral secrestions, and that is what I do for my patients as well!! So I can see where you are coming from!!! The fact that it would taste like nasty lung secretions coming in from outside my mouth, instead of up directly from my lungs does make it seem especially gross!!!

:o:o:o

:uhoh21::uhoh21::uhoh21:

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Specializes in Only the O.R. and proud of it!.

The worst part about a lung transplant? Coughing up someone else's sputum! :)

But, with a trach, I would suppose that a 14 Fr suction catheter would be used for deep lung suctioning. I am now in surgery, but whenever I have witnessed trach suctioning, it was with a new, sterile flex. catheter. In surgery (patients w/out trach), if deep suctioning is done, the catheter MUST pas through the mouth to get deep. It's just anatomy. Do you think that air is magically sterilized as you inhale? There's a differemce between sterile, clean, and dirty.

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Specializes in Travel Nursing, ICU, tele, etc.
The worst part about a lung transplant? Coughing up someone else's sputum! :)

Good one!!! I love it!!!! hehehe

:lol2::lol2::lol2::lol2:

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When you learn correct suctioning procedures in school, you learn that you go from clean to dirty. In order to get to the patient's lungs to suction them, you have three choices: thru the mouth, thru the nose, or thru a trach. The patient that you know has a trach, and even that is not a sterile area, only considered clean. It has a direct opening to the outside world in the first place if you think about it. And this is the standard of care that you will actually learn, no matter where in the world that you are doing your training.

Using a suction catheter first to do the lungs via which ever route can be used to suction the mouth afterwards. The mouth is actually considered a dirty area.

Mouth care with swabs are just that, they do not suction and remove secretions from that area. And that must be done if the patient cannot handle their secretions. Usually a main reason that patients have trachs done is that they cannot handle their own secretions.

Yankauer catheters do not have the capability of going into a patient's lungs. And in the home environment, the suctioning of a trach is considered a clean procedure, it is not considered a sterile procedure. You need a soft and flexible catheter to fit it into the trach and down it, the Yankauer cannot do that at all. It does not bend.

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