Oral Suctioning Training

Oral suctioning is a vital skill for a wide variety of healthcare professionals, from nurses to care workers. If someone in your care is unable to clear their own airway, you need to act quickly and safely, always following best practices and using a person-centred approach.

Our oral suctioning course will help your team do exactly that. They’ll learn the correct methodology, how to identify when oral suctioning may be necessary, and all the relevant considerations and context that is required to perform the procedure correctly.

If an individual is unable to clear mucus and saliva from their throat via coughing, or the buildup is restricting their airway, oral suctioning is the most effective method for clearing it safely.

Many people, either in hospital or in care, may have a weak cough due to tiredness or weakness. Also, if they have recently gone through surgery, this can often leave them struggling to cough properly.

There are some neurological conditions that weaken the throat muscles, reducing the strength of a cough. Oral suctioning can also be an emergency procedure to remove a heavy buildup of vomit or other fluids.

As oral suctioning is an invasive and potentially distressing procedure, it should only be undertaken when clinically indicated and never performed unnecessarily as routine care. Where a person has capacity, valid consent must be obtained and any refusal respected. If they lack capacity, staff must follow the relevant capacity legislation and act in the person’s best interests, including during an emergency where delaying treatment could cause serious harm.

Our oral suctioning course explores consent, capacity and person-centred decision-making in detail, helping staff perform the procedure safely, lawfully and with dignity.

Because of the nature of this procedure, and the potential risks, effective training is essential. Your team members must also be able to identify when an individual needs oral suctioning at the earliest indication, and then perform the procedure correctly and with informed consent.

Our practical and theoretical course in Oral Suction Training will not only equip delegates with the knowledge they need to carry out the practice but will also provide them with an understanding of the legal and professional implications related to oral suctioning.

-The course will cover a wide variety of modules to ensure delegates gain a comprehensive understanding of the subject area; these modules will explain what oral suctioning is, why and how it is used, the anatomy of the airway, and more.

We always put a strong focus on person-centred care. Just knowing how to perform a procedure is not enough; delegates will also develop better communication skills so that they can explain to individuals why oral suctioning may be necessary, and to reduce the shock and minimise discomfort if it does happen.

Obtaining consent is also vital. If an individual does not consent, or reacts violently to the procedure, the risk of injury or making an issue worse is increased. This can all be avoided with development of communication skills and consent acquisition.

Our course will also cover the legal and professional implications related to oral suctioning, backed up by the latest regulations and guidance. This is so that your organisation always performs procedures that follow best practice and to the expected standards of governing bodies.

Our Oral Suctioning training course has been designed to benefit any healthcare or care provider’s team.

It contains all the necessary information regarding best practice, context, and contains relevant resources for referral. We also take a blended approach, using both written work and competency assessments.

Like all of our training courses, this program will be tailored to suit your specific organisation. Our trainers are all practicing medical professionals; this means that they have access to the latest data and resources, and will always be up to date with the latest guidelines and ready to answer any questions.

This course is therefore ideal for:

Please note that this course is for groups, not individuals. Contact us if you have any questions about course eligibility.

We understand that an effective training course should cover more than just methodology. A typical course will cover:

We are also able to design a bespoke course syllabus to include nasal suctioning, ‘deep’ suctioning and nasopharyngeal suctioning should you require it.

This is a blended course, so delegates will need to complete various e-learning workbooks, as well as attending in-person practical training sessions, in order to receive certification in oral suctioning.

There will also be a competency assessment. We will provide the necessary competency proformas required to ensure safe and evidenced-based clinical practice following completion of the Oral Suction training course.

This will then allow the Registered Provider to ensure mandatory competency assessments are completed within the workplace by a nominated mentor/supervisor.

Should you need further advice regarding competency assessments, or if you would like one of our Registered Nurse Trainers to provide onsite competency assessments then please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Alongside our Oral Suctioning Course, we offer bespoke advanced suctioning training for organisations supporting people with more complex airway and secretion-management needs.

Training can include nasal suctioning, oropharyngeal (OP) suctioning, nasopharyngeal (NP) suctioning and procedures locally described as deep suctioning, once the intended route, depth and clinical purpose have been clearly defined.

Each course is tailored to the care setting, equipment, staff roles and individual care pathways, covering clinical indications, contraindications, consent and capacity, infection prevention, safe technique, monitoring, escalation, documentation and practical competency assessment.

Advanced suctioning must be clinically indicated, supported by an individualised care plan and organisational policy, and undertaken only by staff who have received appropriate training and been assessed as competent.