Which intervention best helps keep the airway clear of secretions in a client with pneumonia?

• A. Increase oral intake to at least 2000 mL/day.
• B. Administer a cough suppressant medication.
• C. Perform percussion to the affected area.
• D. Educate client on incentive spirometry.

Answer: (D)

Encouraging lung expansion with incentive spirometry helps keep the airway clear by promoting deep breaths, expanding the alveoli, and helping move secretions toward the larger airways to be coughed out. In pneumonia, where secretions can pool and cause areas of hypoventilation, this kind of breathing exercise strengthens the ability to take controlled, full breaths, improves oxygenation, and reduces the risk of atelectasis, making it easier to clear secretions over time. The technique involves slow, deep inhalations through a spirometer to reach a prescribed volume, followed by a brief hold and a relaxed exhale, repeated in monitoring sessions multiple times per hour. While hydration can help thin secretions and percussion can loosen them, incentive spirometry directly trains the patient to ventilate and clear the airways consistently, making it the best intervention in this context.