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

The purpose of the 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 for evaluating the nurses' knowledge, attitude, self-reported practice and real practice regarding medication administration via enteral feeding tube. Mean score of knowledge, and the percentage of different domains of attitude and practice was reported. 53 nurses were included in this study. The mean number of medications which were 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 forms selection. About half of the nurses had proper knowledge regarding tube flushing and drug dilution,however according to direct researcher’s observation, 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 problems in knowledge and attitude of nurses included crushing the dosage forms and in real practice in diluting medications and tube flushes domain.