Reasons and Frequency of Orogastric Tube Change in Preterm Infants by Nurses Working in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Abstract

Aim; Among nutritional support methods for preterm infants, enteral feeding via orogastric tube is widely used clinically. This study aims to determine the causes and frequency of orogastric tube replacement in preterm infants. Method; The descriptive study was conducted with 154 nurses working in NICUs. 'Descriptive Information Form' for nurses and an 'Orogastric Tube Evaluation Form' developed with expert opinion were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Results; The mean age of the nurses in the study was 30.97±5.79, the mean number of years working in the profession was 8.57±6.21, and the mean number of years working in the NICU was 5.94±4.63 years. It was found that 95.5% of the nurses were female, 73.4% had an undergraduate degree, 90.9% worked in a 3rd level NICU and 82.5% had NICU training. The most common reason for orogastric tube replacement was the infant pulling out the orogastric tube (98.1%). The frequency of orogastric tube replacement was higher in the night shift. However, the frequency of orogastric tube replacement was 2 or more times (71.4%) especially in infants followed up with CPAP. It was observed that the frequency of changing the orogastric tube was higher in the prone position (27.9%) and the frequency of changing the orogastric tube (73.4%) was higher in preterm infants fed 12*1. Conclusion; It was concluded that problems related to orogastric tube fixation were the most common reasons for orogastric tube replacement.