DOI: 10.33808/clinexphealthsci.1918598 ISSN: 2459-1459

Challenges Experienced by Intensive Care Nurses in Patient Feeding and Proposed Solutions

Emriye Kör, Kader Mert
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Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the difficulties experienced by nurses working in adult intensive care units in oral, enteral and parenteral nutrition and to identify solutions. Method: The study is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The sample of the study consisted of volunteers (n:80) who were working in the intensive care units of a university hospital in January - April 2022. The research data were collected by the researchers by the face-to-face interview method with a data collection questionnaire. Results: Oral nutrition 40% is the type of patient nutrition that nurses have the most problems with. Nurses are the first to notice complications related to patient nutrition 98.8%. The most common complication in oral nutrition is “food aspiration” 92.5%); the most common complication in enteral nutrition is “diarrhea” 90%; The most common complication in parenteral nutrition is “problems with the catheter” 67.5%. In the oral nutrition of the patients in the intensive care units, 36.6% of the nurses stated that the hospital meals should be diversified; In enteral nutrition, 37.8% of the nurses preferred the selection of nutritional products suitable for the patient's existing diagnoses; In parenteral nutrition, 71.4% of the nurses recommend inserting a central venous catheter. 38.8% of the nurses did not receive any training on patient nutrition, and 40% were not informed about the institution's patient nutrition protocol. Conclusion: Intensive care nurses have the most problems in oral patient nutrition, in terms of the patient not wanting to be fed insufficiently or at all, in the use of standard products in enteral nutrition and in providing intravenous catheterization in parenteral nutrition.

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