Investigation of evidence based practices of intensive care unit nurses related to enteral nutrition

This thesis study was carried out as an identifier in order to determine evidence-based information and practices of nurses working in the intensive care unit, which is one of the places that enteral nutrition is applied most frequently, for enteral nutrition. The study population was composed of all nurses working in intensive care units located in the Abant Izzet Baysal University Health Practice and Research Hospitaland hospitals connected to Bolu Public Hospitals Association. Sampling covered all the population and it was performed with 100 nurses by reaching 100% of the population. Data collection form prepared in accordance with the literature was applied to the nurses, who accepted the study, via face-to-face interview technique. Data were coded into SPSS 20.0 software package; frequency and percentage distributions, paired sampls were analyzed using the t and chi-square test. It was determined that more than half of the intensive care unit nurses included in the study are at the age of 20-30, have bachelor's degree, working in the general intensive care unit at a public hospital, duration of working in intensive care unit is between 1-5 years and mostly clinical studies are used as the main source of information about enteral nutrition. It was determined that the majority of intensive care unit nurses knows checking that the feeding tube is in the right place before starting the nutrition, calibrating the feeding pump periodically, the tubes hould be flushed with at least 15-30 ml of water before and after drug administration, enteral nutrition will be prepared in compliance with aseptic techniques, the head will be raised at an angle of 30-45 degrees for all patients with the absence of contraindications during enteral nutrition, enteral nutrition sets should be changed every 24 hours from evidence based practices and they have adopted as a current practice in similar rates; this is found to be statistically significant (p <0.05). It was observed that more than half of the nurses did not know sterile water would be preferred instead of tap water for flushing of the enteral tube in immune system suppressed and critically ill patients, enteral nutrition will be started without waiting bowel movement and gas outlet in the postoperative period, blood glucose will be frequently followed-up during enteral nutrition, tube tip position will be confirmed radiologically after inserting nasogastric tube or nasoenteric tube, listening with a stethoscope method should not be trusted in adult patients, who were inserted enteral tube from evidence based practices and they also did not adopt in current practices; and this is statistically significant (p <0.05). Implementation of integrated training programs with evidence based practices and the creation of an evidence-based written protocol were recommended.