suctioning

Hi all,
Throughout my cardio placement i've had to do suctioning on an unconcious pt with a trachy in. The first time i did this was during the first week of my placement. My supervisor went through a quick refresher on how to suction and did a demonstration on the pt and then it was my turn. I was pretty grossed out by the noise of the suctioning and the fact that when the saline was put into the trachy to help with clearance a cough reflex was elicited and the saline along with a bit of sputum can shooting back out the trachy, but i had to give it a go. Although my first suctioning experience was a bit rushed, it was fairly effective and got a good amount of sputum out... and luckily nothing came spewing out the trachy all over me! (Thank god!) Over the next couple of suctioning episodes i became a lot more comfortable with the whole thing and eventually got over the grossness and it actually became quite satisfying to get the sputum out!
For those who didn't get the chance to do any suctioning on their cardio placement, the number one tip i can give when you do give it a go is preparation. If you set everything up before you start and make sure that everything you need is within reaching distance then it makes things so much easier... there's nothing more annoying than getting halfway through the suctioning process and realising that you left the clean gloves on the other side of the room!!