Health care professionals' perceptions and experience of initiating different modalities for home enteral feeding

Abstract

Background: With an aging population, there is a concomitant increase in number of patients with dysphagia; and hence increase in prevalence of enteral feeding. Health care professionals play a critical role in informing decisions of patients and caregivers on their choice of modality for long-term home enteral feeding.

Aims: To explore the perceptions of health care professionals on different modalities for enteral feeding and their experiences in initiating long-term enteral feeding among adult patients.

Methods: A qualitative explorative descriptive study design with purposive sampling approach was adopted. A total of four speech therapists, fifteen nurses and seven doctors who were ever involved in initiating long term home enteral tube feeding were recruited over a data collection period of August to December 2017. One to one interviews were conducted and audio-recorded. An inductive content analysis approach, with open coding, creation of categories and abstraction of data was adopted.

Results: Four main themes were generated: (1) Naso-gastric Tube Feeding (NGT) is health care professionals' first choice of modality; (2) Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Feeding (PEG) is regarded as an alternative approach; (3) Perceived better outcomes with PEG; and (4) Identified barriers to promotion of PEG.

Conclusion: NGT remained as the modality of choice although health care professionals perceived that patients will have better outcomes with the use of PEG.

Keywords: Enteral tube feeding; Experiences; Health care professionals; Nasogastric tube; Nutrition; Perceptions; Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube.