Factors Associated with Nasogastric Tube Feeding Complications among Patients with Cerebro-vascular Stroke

Background: Nasogastric tube feeding is the most frequently used method of enteral feeding among critically ill patients and it is accompanied by some complications. Aim: Assess factors associated with nasogastric tube feeding complications among patients with cerebro-vascular stroke through assessing patients' related factors and nurses' related factors. Design: Adescriptive design was conducted to achieve the aim of this study. Settings: The study was conducted in three intensive care units, two units at Ain shams university hospital (Combined medical intensive care unit and neurological ICU). And one unit at El-demerdash hospital (Emergency ICU). Study subjects: A convenient sample of all available nurses 50 working in the previous mentioned settings and purposive sample of 100 patients. Tools: data were collected through using four tools Stroke patient's assessment tool, nurse's self-administered questionnaire, nurses' practice observational checklist and Nasogastric tube feeding complications assessment tool. Results: The result reveals that 70% of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory level of total knowledge and100 % of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory level of practice regarding NGT and 77% of patients had electrolyte imbalance and 59 % of them had weight loss. Conclusion: this result concluded that, there was a highly statistically significant relation between nurses' years of experience, total knowledge, total practice and total complications with P-Value (0.000). Recommendations: Implementing educational program for nurses to improve their knowledge and practice regarding nasogastric tube.