Saudi Journal of Nursing and Health Care (SJNHC)
Volume-3 | Issue-11 | 316-318
Original Research Article
Impact of Clinical Pharmacist Interventions on Improving Nurses’ Practice of Tube Occlusion Management in Patients on Enteral Feeding Tubes (EFT)
Athira BM
Published : Nov. 20, 2020
Abstract
A high number of patients in the hospital setting are dependent on Enteral Feeding Tubes (EFT) due to varying reasons like disease related disabilities or swallowing difficulties. Tube occlusion is a very common complication occurring in patient on EFT. The nurses are many times unaware for the proper techniques to be followed in case of tube occlusion events. This study aims at assessing the routine practices followed by nurses related to management of tube occlusions and the impact of training provided by clinical pharmacist on the same. A prospective interventional study was carried out in a tertiary care hospital of Kerala state of India. Clinical pharmacist led training programmes and guideline development was performed during the intervention phase. The pre interventional and post interventional data were compared and statistically analyzed using SPSS version 13. In the post intervention phase proper use of warm water and use of alkalinized solution of pancreatic enzymes increased significantly (P<0.001). Changing of the tube reduced from 74.6% to 21.4% which was significant (p<0.001). The study shows that clinical pharmacist interventions through training, auditing and implementation of guidelines can significantly improve the tube occlusion management in patients on EFT and ensure quality and safety of therapy.