Nursing empowerment by simulation in percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy short‑time complication control: Protocol study

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is one of the most suitable methods for long‑term nutritional support. In this study, the empowerment of intensive care nurses is examined by a simulation technique to control the short‑term complications of PEG.

A two‑group clinical trial study will be conducted on eighty intensive care nurses in a teaching hospital in Tehran. The study participants will be randomly assigned to one of the two control and intervention groups based on the inclusion criteria. A pretest will be given to both groups using a researcher‑made tool. Then, the empowerment package developed by the researcher will be provided to the intervention group in two stages. Next, a posttest will be administered. After this stage, patients’ complications with PEG will be observed using a researcher‑made checklist. Nurses’ performances in both control and intervention groups will be evaluated in terms of preventing and controlling short‑term complications up to 1 week after PEG insertion. All of the data collected in this research will be analyzed with statistic tests such as independent t‑test, standard deviation, T pair, ANOVA, and mean based on the SPSS 16 software.

At present, the research team is designing an empowerment package for nurses and tools needed to evaluate the nurses’ empowerment.

This study will attempt to design and evaluate the empowerment package of graduate nurses with a cognitive empowerment approach and using a simulation technique to care for patients with PEG and to control their short‑term complications.