Date of Award

Fall 2025

Project Type

Clinical Doctorate

College or School

UNHM

Department

Nursing

Program or Major

Doctor of Nursing Practice

First Advisor

Cathleen Colleran

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Infants who are born prematurely stay in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) until they are able to take full enteral nutrition by mouth. While in the NICU a nasogastric tube (NG tube) would be used to supplement the volume needed to be ingested for optimal nutrition. Infants typically feed better with a consistent caregiver and at home in an environment with less stimulation. Allowing infants to be discharged with an NG tube allows the parents to be more involved in their infant's care with a shorter hospital stay. An increased number of infants being discharged home with NG tube feedings prompted this quality improvement project. This quality improvement project's objective is to improve nursing competence and confidence in educating parents of infants who will be discharged home from the NICU with NG tube feedings. The hospital this QI project took place in is a 60-bed level IV NICU.

Methods: A guideline for infants being discharged home with NG tube feedings had been developed with a multidisciplinary workgroup. Small groups or individualized structured education was provided to registered nurses in the NICU. Pre and post education surveys were administered. The surveys were aimed to evaluate knowledge(competence) and assess confidence before and after the intervention. Interventions: Structured education was provided to registered nurses in small groups or individually. A powerpoint presentation was used to demonstrate essential information such as how to find the current guidelines, where to find equipment for teaching and a breakdown of education that needs to be provided to families of infants who will be discharged home from the NICU with NG tube feedings. A mannequin was used to demonstrate how teaching should be performed and how parents will provide a teach back for the education. Questions and discussions in the education session were allowed.

Results: A Mann-Whitney U test was utilized to evaluate competence and confidence in registered nurses before and after structured education. A significance level of 0.05 and 95% confidence level for the pre and post intervention surveys confirmed nursing competence and confidence improved after the intervention.

Conclusions: Providing structured education on how to educate parents of infants being discharged home from the NICU with NG tubes to registered nurses improved nursing confidence and competence. This QI initiative was successful in educating nurses in a level IV NICU.

Keywords: premature; infant; nasogastric tube; NG tube; registered nurse; confidence; competence

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