Assessment the knowledge, care, and experiences of neonatal nurses about enteral nutrition

Enteral-feeding refers to any nutritional method throughout the gastrointestinal tract, including oral feeding. This qualitative study examined the information, experiences, and records of neonatal nurses of enterally fed patients. The study was conducted between 05.04.2018 and 05.05.2018 with 22 nurses (73.3%) working in the neonatal intensive care clinic of Çukurova University Balcali Hospital, Adana, Turkey. The data were collected by “Observation and Interview Form” developed based on the literature. Nurses were observed, and interviews were conducted depending on their appointments. Data were collected by observing each nurse on 2 different days. In all observations; it was determined that the nurses changed the feeding set daily, regularly checked the location of the feeding tube and amount of residue, and administered medication through the feeding tube. In 22.7% of the observations, nurses did not securely fix the feeding tube, 27.2% did not write a daily date on the injector with the residual volume measured, and 31.8% did not wash the injector. All the nurses recorded the amount of feed, residual amounts, and content. At the end of the interviews, 9% of the nurses stated that they had experienced aspiration among the complications encountered during enteral feeding. During the interview, they stated that all nurses were educated about enteral nutrition, had control of whether the probe was in place before feeding, performed residual control, washed their hands before the procedure, fixed the food injector to 1 place, and allowed the food injector to flow spontaneously with negative pressure. According to the results of the interviews and observations, nurses could not reflect on their nursing practices correctly. Nurses working in neonatal intensive care units should be regularly trained to share the results of evidence-based studies on enteral nutrition.