Suppository Administration: OSCE Station Checklist

The suppository station is the OSCE’s dignity exam. The technique is simple; what’s being marked is whether you can do an intimate procedure while keeping the patient informed, covered and in control.

The sequence:

1. Prescription check: drug, dose, and specifically the rectal route. Screen for contraindications: recent rectal surgery, active bleeding, very low platelets.
2. Hand hygiene, identity check, and a proper explanation of what the procedure involves before asking consent. Offer a chaperone per local policy.
3. Privacy: curtains fully closed, patient covered, only the necessary area exposed, call bell within reach.
4. Position: left lateral, knees drawn up. Say why: it follows the natural curve of the rectum.
5. Gloves and apron. Water-based lubricant on the suppository’s tip.
6. Ask the patient to take slow breaths, then insert gently past the anal sphincter, about a finger’s length in an adult, so it stays in.
7. Clean the area, cover the patient, dispose of waste, remove gloves, hand hygiene.
8. Retention advice matched to the purpose: a glycerin suppository for constipation acts in 15 to 20 minutes, so hold on as long as possible; a drug suppository should be retained, not passed.
9. Document, and later record the effect (bowels opened, or drug given).

What the actor is scripted to notice

Everything before the gloves go on. Was the explanation given before consent was requested, or during the procedure? Was the patient covered while you prepared? Did you warn before touching? The checklist for intimate procedures weights these steps because real complaints about nursing care concentrate exactly here, not on technique.

Depth is the technique mark: too shallow and the suppository is expelled immediately. If the exam asks which end goes first, give the practical answer, follow the manufacturer’s instructions and local policy, and don’t let the debate eat your station time; positioning, dignity and retention advice are where the marks concentrate.

One more habit transfers from every other station: closing the loop. Patient comfortable, call bell in hand, “I’ll come back to check how you’re getting on”, then the documentation. The station ends when the record is written, not when the gloves come off.

Five questions below, then the highest-stakes skill on the list: NG tube insertion, the one with a Never Event attached.