Nurses' Knowledge & Practices toward Enteral Feeding and its effect on selected High-Risk Neonates' Outcomes

Abstract

Background: Enteral feeding is the prioritized method of administrating nutrients in high-risk neonates. The current study aims to assess nurses' knowledge and practices toward enteral feeding and its effect on selected high-risk neonates' outcomes. Subjects and Method: A descriptive exploratory research design was conducted in Neonatal intensive care unit at Beni-Suef University and general Hospitals in Beni-Suef city, Egypt. A purposeful sample of neonatal pediatric nurses responsible for providing direct care for high-risk neonates (70 nurses) at Beni-Suef University and general hospitals during data collection and neonates were utilized in this study. Three data collection tools were utilized in this study: Tool I: Nurses' knowledge questionnaire, Tool II: Nurses practice checklist, and Tool III: neonatal outcomes. Results: nearly two-thirds and nearly half of the studied nurses had unsatisfactory knowledge and practice regarding enteral feeding of high-risk neonates. Also, moderate effect between acute increase of abdominal girth after 2 hours in the 3 rd day of the study with nurses' knowledge and practice toward enteral feeding of high-risk neonates and hospital duration of high-risk neonates at the 3 rd and 4 th days of the study with nurses' practice. Conclusion: nurses' knowledge and practices about enteral feeding of high-risk neonates had a moderate effect on the acute increase of abdominal girth after 2 hours in the 3 rd day. Recommendation: periodically implementing of health education training toward enteral feeding high-risk neonates to enhance their knowledge and practices and reduce effects on high-risk neonates' outcomes.

Nutritional Care in Psychiatry: Assessing Health Professionals’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practices

“…This finding seems to be consistent with that of an earlier study in Australia where the majority of nurses had good (60.1%) and excellent (10.3%) knowledge of enteral nutrition (Clarke et al, 2016). However, the current finding contradicts those of similar studies in Cameroon (Yang, 2022), Egypt (Gomaa et al, 2022), and Ethiopia (Tsige et al, 2022), where 75.5%, 64.3%, and 67.7% of health workers, respectively, demonstrated an inadequate level of knowledge on patient nutritional care. A possible explanation for the rather contradictory results is the fact that many health training programmes do not incorporate nutrition coursework and placements (Munuo et al, 2016), leaving graduates of these programmes with basic knowledge and skills in patient nutritional care.…”

“…Several studies have sought to understand the level of knowledge and attitude of health workers toward patient nutritional care in different countries. Suboptimal levels of knowledge on patient nutrition have been reported among health workers in the African region; Cameroon (Yang, 2022), Egypt (Gomaa et al, 2022), and Ethiopia (Tsige et al, 2022). On the contrary, however, relatively high level of knowledge on patient nutritional care was reported among nurses in Australia (Clarke et al, 2016).…”

Nurses Performance regarding Humanized Care of Newborn with Hyperbilirubinemia

“…No. 4 (Suppl 2) ,November 2023 finding was in accordance with Gomaa et al, (2022) Abukari et al, (2021) who reported that majority of nurses in their studies had inadequate total knowledge score regarding enteral feeding before conducting educational program (27,28) . But this result was different from Abo Elezz et al (2021) who proved that slightly more than half of the studied nurses had satisfactory knowledge related to enteral feeding before education (29) .…”

Effect of Kangaroo Mother Care Discharge Guide Program on Mothers and Preterm Neonates Outcomes

“…One million babies die as a result of the negative effects of preterm delivery. The risk of developmental abnormalities, early growth retardation, infections, and early mortality in neonates or childhood is increased in low birth weight newborns who are able to survive during the immediate neonatal period (Gomaa, Ahmed and Aboelmagd, 2022).…”