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Bedside procedures

How to remove sutures and staples

Other platforms explain it with text and video. In Making Synapses you practice it on the patient.

MD / DONursing (NCLEX)
Practice it in VR with Blocky

Remove sutures on time and without pulling dirty thread through the wound.

Step by step

  1. Timing

    Typical: face 3 to 5 days, scalp 7 to 10, trunk and arms 7 to 14, legs 10 to 14. [1]

  2. Check the wound

    Healed edges, no signs of infection. [1]

  3. Clean

    Per policy. [1]

  4. Sutures

    Lift the knot, cut close to the skin under it, pull through toward the wound. [1]

  5. Staples

    Staple remover under the staple, squeeze, lift out. [1]

  6. Support

    Adhesive strips; teach wound care. [1]

Common errors

Practice it in Making Synapses

In Making Synapses you do this on the patient, not on paper: every step goes on the checklist with a score, and in Teach mode Blocky tells you what comes next.

Making Synapses cases that train this skill

Sources

  1. Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College) (CC BY 4.0)
  2. OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference)

Steps adapted from Open RN, Nursing Skills 2e (Chippewa Valley Technical College), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Facts and steps also follow OpenStax, Clinical Nursing Skills (reference). Making Synapses is not affiliated with these organizations. Updated: 2026-10-11.