Nutrition - Enteral: Nursing skills

There are many reasons why a client might encounter problems with eating or drinking. It could be due to difficulties with chewing, swallowing, or digestion as a result of trauma, surgery, or various medical conditions. Several alternative methods of providing them the nutrients and fluids they need are available. As the nurse, you will be responsible for administering these alternative delivery methods including enteral feedings, as well as assessing and caring for clients receiving enteral feedings. Some clients might receive enteral nutrition, otherwise known as “tube feeding.” This means nutrition is delivered through a tube directly into the gastrointestinal, or GI, tract. And this might be especially helpful for those who can’t properly chew or swallow as a result of head or neck trauma; surgery; coma; dementia; nervous system disorders; or tumors of the head, neck, or esophagus that block the passage of food.

Now, there are various ways the feeding tube can go into the GI tract. The most common one is a nasogastric tube connected to a feeding bag or delivered through a pump; it goes through the nose and down into the stomach. A nasointestinal tube also goes through the nose but ends in the small intestines. These tubes can irritate the client’s throat and nose, and the clients will often dislodge the tubes. As the nurse, you may be responsible for inserting a nasogastric tube. Be sure to consult your organization’s protocols and policies to determine when and how this skill is done at your facility. Next, tubes can be inserted through a surgical opening, or stoma, in the abdominal wall and into the stomach, known as a gastrostomy tube, or G-tube. Tubes can also be inserted into a part of the small intestine called the jejunum, which is known as a jejunostomy tube, or J-tube. A common type of gastrostomy tube is the percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube, or PEG tube for short.