How do we suction respiratory secretions from a patient with an NG tube?

new graduate here! this site is a great help for new rns i must say and i love it a lot. today i answered the call bell for a family members of a patient which another nurse was taking care of. the patient was on a continuous nasogastric feeding and i believe he was also admitted for pneumonia and sounded very congested. i have not encountered this situation before, but would it have been ok to nasopharyngeal suction him through the non ngt nare, or is this contraindicated? how would we go about suctioning respiratory secretions from a patient with an ng tube? thanks!!!today i answered the call bell for a family members of a patient which another nurse was taking care of. the patient was on a continuous nasogastric feeding and i believe he was also admitted for pneumonia and sounded very congested. i have not encountered this situation before, but would it have been ok to nasopharyngeal suction him through the non- ngt nare, or is this contraindicated? how would we go about suctioning respiratory secretions from a patient with an ng tube? thanks!!! Last edit by traumaRUs on Nov 28, '12 : Reason: Merged threads
As far as I'm aware you can perform nasopharyngeal suction on a pt with an ngt tube as long as afterwards you check the ng tube is still where it supposed to be and hasnt moved during suctioning.

First, you need an order to NT suction someone. It isn't only nursing judgement.After that, I don't see why not suction them on the other nare. However, you need to make sure the patient hyperoxigenates himself/herself before suctioning. And you need to be quick as it will be hard for the patient to breath.

Since unless he has significant pharyngeal malformations or injuries he has been able to breathe just fine through his MOUTH, suctioning his pharynx is not a problem over and above the normal issue of doing pharyngeal suctioning regardless of route. If he has a stuffy nose, he's breathing through his mouth anyway, right? If he needs pharyngeal suctioning to have a clear airway, why not use a Yankauer suction tip via his mouth? Why bother going nasally? Ever been nasally suctioned? It's nasty if not really needed.And since when does an RN need an order to do NT suctioning? (Nasopharyngeal is not nasotracheal anyway)