NextGen Learning To Elevate Your Airway Practice
Overview
Don’t just “plunge and pray,” hoping to find the cords. Airway experts know that an incremental approach to laryngoscopy is best, but thoughtful progression, from mouth opening to tube delivery, can be a difficult path to follow under stress. It helps to develop a personal mantra that you can recite. This will calm the mind, give you focus, and ultimately improve your first-pass success. So, take a moment to develop your intubation mantra. We show you how here.
Benefits of a Mantra
The Airway Mantra isn’t just a tool for the moment before intubation, it’s a powerful cognitive anchor you can return to anytime. Use it to guide self-directed practice, rehearsing the procedure in your mind or out loud. Practice visualizing each step from preparation to tube placement, building muscle memory and confidence long before you’re at the bedside. And when you’re teaching others? The Airway Mantra becomes a simple, memorable framework for verbalizing and coaching the steps of laryngoscopy, perfect for bedside teaching and reinforcing learning in real time.
✅ Centers your focus in high-stress moments before intubation
✅ Breaks the procedure into simple, actionable steps
✅ Enhances memory recall under pressure
✅ Guides self-directed practice anytime, anywhere
✅ Supports mental rehearsal and visualization of the intubation process
✅ Provides a structured way to verbalize steps for bedside teaching
✅ Builds confidence and reduces cognitive overload
✅ Creates a shared mental model for teams during airway management
Rapid Review
Place blade midline. Uvula points the way to the epiglottis. Stay high and dry; hug the base of your tongue. The tip of the epiglottis comes into view—blade seats into the valeculla. Optimize view and deliver tube. Remove stylet. Confirm placement. 🕉 Place blade midline. Uvula points the way to the epiglottis. Stay high and dry; hug the base of your tongue. The tip of the epiglottis comes into view—blade seats into the valeculla. Optimize view and deliver tube. Remove stylet. Confirm placement.
Watch Listen Visualize
Build Your Network
a mantra expert
No one is better at teaching this progressive laryngoscopy mantra than @TBayEDguy Yen Chow. Build your learning network and follow him on Twitter for regular hits of great airway learning.
Listen here
Use this audio-only version to focus on the mantra. Spend a few minutes repeating it until you can visualize each part of the intubation in your mind’s eye.
The Bottom Line
In the high-stakes world of airway management, the moments before you pick up the laryngoscope can make or break the outcome. The Airway Mantra helps center your mind, organize your thoughts, and prepare you to act with clarity and confidence, every time.
What’s Next
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