You are about to head out on a call for a 65-year old man who is reported to be suffering from sudden respiratory distress. Few details are known about this man’s medical history, so you aren’t entirely sure what you are about to encounter. You grab your First-In bag, knowing that your airway management tools make you well prepared for any airway emergency.

Emergency medical responders are responsible for saving lives every day. Their knowledge and skills enable them to quickly assess and treat patients who may be unconscious, unable to communicate or located in remote terrain.

Portable suction is not utilized in the field on every call, and not on an everyday basis. However, when it is needed, it can make the difference between a patient that leaves the hospital and one who dies of aspiration pneumonia after a successful resuscitation.

Emergency medical nursing equipment isn’t just for nurses working in emergency rooms or on ambulances. A pediatric nurse working at a sleepy family practice may suddenly be confronted with a choking patient. A midwife at a birthing center may have to revive a neonate or treat a catastrophic hemorrhage.

 

 

Suctioning a patient’s airway is not a “one size fits all” procedure. Whether to clear secretions that the patient cannot mobilize, remove vomitus or foreign materials from the pharynx or trachea, or to maintain the patency of an artificial airway, some suction strategies will work better than others for a particular situation.  

Every nurse knows durable medical equipment doesn’t last forever.

 

When was the last time you kicked a hospital bed in frustration because the motor ground to a halt as you were elevating a patient’s head? Or you discovered an IV pump apparently quit working in the middle of the night, depriving your patient of vital hydration?

 

When equipment like a portable medical suction machine unexpectedly stops working, it can be more than a nuisance. It can endanger patient safety. If you reach for a suction wand because your patient aspirated, and you discover there’s no suction...there may be a bad outcome in the wings.

 

Purchasing any type of new medical equipment is a major decision, and portable medical suction is no exception. There are countless products available, all of which come with different sizes, shapes capabilities, and situation-specific features. So, how do you decide which medical suction device to buy?

For every 1,000 Americans, 423 made an emergency room visit to a community hospital in 2013. The population of the United States that year was 316.5 million, so when you do the math, that’s almost a whopping 134 million ER visits. This number doesn’t include millions of hospital inpatient stays or outpatient procedures, further emphasizing the importance—and challenges—of providing quality care every time someone walks in, or is wheeled in, the door.