Improving Patient Outcomes with Gastro-Intestinal Tube Guidance for Nurses and Providers

Acute Care nursing staff placed a Cortrack enteral feeding tube blindly at the bedside and the patient subsequently developed a pneumothorax. Institutionally, there was vague guidance for nurses from existing GI Tube policy and limited education for nurses on feeding tube placement. Furthermore, the Enteral Feeding tube team was not available afterhours when tube was placed. A multidisciplinary team was created with the goal to develop a comprehensive GI Tube Guideline to define GI Tubes used in our institution, to provide evidence-based guidance for nurses and providers on insertion, removal, and routine care of GI tubes, and to align EPIC orders and LDAs with our GI tube nomenclature. A Comprehensive Guideline for the Care of Gastro Intestinal Tubes was created that clearly defines the GI tubes used in our institution, provides guidance on the nursing scope and role descriptions of who can insert and remove GI tubes, and gives clear indications for maintenance of GI tubes. As a result of the collaboration from our inter-disciplinary team, evidence-based practices on GI tube insertion, care and maintenance were updated, Cortrack tubes and Clog Zapper were removed from nursing supply rooms, and GI tube guidelines and education were approved.