Determination of patients, depending on enteral tube feding at home, and interventions adopted for the problems

The research was conducted for the purpose of determination of the problems encountered by patients depending on enteral tube feeding at home and interventions for the problems on a descriptive basis.The research was conducted on adult patients, residing in the province of Ankara, depending on tube feeding at home for more than three months, and who were registered to a special company, rendering house care service. In the research, no selection of sampling was adopted, and the number of patients, taken into the scope of the research, was 50.The data in the research were obtained as a result of one-to-one meetings with patients and relatives, accepting to take place in the research through the question form prepared by the researcher on his experience and literature.Data collection form comprises of 46 questions of descriptive features of patients, characteristics related to enteral feeding, and problems encountered when depending on enteral feeding at home and interventions against the said problems.Data coding and assessment operations were made on the basis of SPSS 15.0 programme. In assessment of the data, number and percentage calculations were used.The average age of the patients is; = 69.08 ± 9.25? years. It was determined that nearly all patients had chronic neurological diseases, consciousness level of 46 % of them was affected at different levels, and nearly all of them were partially or wholly dependent in their daily life activities. It was determined that the patients encountered physiological, mechanical and psychosocial problems such as aspiration pneumonia (n=6), tube infection (n=9), vomiting (n=29), constipation (n=22), diarrhea (n=19), tube blockage (n=15), disconnection of enterostomal tube (n=14), and anxiety (n=29). Patients and their relatives expressed financial problems related to tool procurement (n=47), non-allocation of health service at home (n=40), and patient transportation (n=22).Suggestions were put forth in parallel with the results, obtained from the research.Key words: Enteral Nutrition, Home Care, Nursing, Patient Training.