Evaluating knowledge, attitude and practice of intensive care unit nurses in administering medications via enteral tubes

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Intensive Care Unit nurses’ knowledge, attitude, self-reported practice and observed practice, regarding medication administration via enteral feeding tube.In this cross sectional study, a questionnaire and a checklist was developed to evaluate the nurses’ knowledge, attitude, self-reported and actual practice, regarding medication administration via enteral feeding tube. Mean score of knowledge, and the percentage of different domains of attitude and practice was reported.Fifty three nurses were included in this study. The mean ± SD number of medications prescribed for each patient was 15.8±4.5. From these medications, 5.5±2.8 drugs were administered via enteral feeding tube. There were few nurses (5%) with proper knowledge regarding correct dosage form selection. About half of the nurses had proper knowledge regarding tube flushing and drug dilution; however according to the direct researcher’s observation, only 11% of nurses flushed the tubes before medication administration.The current study showed the disparity between the nurses’ knowledge, self-reported practice, and proper performance in drug administration through enteral feeding tube. The most important problem in knowledge and attitude of nurses was in crushing the dosage forms and in actual practice, it was mainly in diluting medications and the process of tube flushing.