INCREASING KNOWLEDGE AND CONFIDENCE IN THE CARE OF PATIENTS WITH GASTROSTOMY TUBES

Patients requiring admission to the Trauma Intensive Care Unit (TICU) represent some of
the most critically ill and complex cases within intensive care. These patients, often suffering
from significant trauma to vital areas, may necessitate prolonged enteral feeding, frequently
leading to the insertion of gastrostomy tubes. Despite the critical nature of gastrostomy tube
management for patients with severe trauma and the need for enteral feeding, there is a gap in
knowledge and confidence in this area. This gap necessitates targeted educational programs to
improve patient outcomes. This quality improvement project focused on the nursing staff in the
Trauma Intensive Care Unit (TICU) at a large academic medical center. The nurses received a
comprehensive education module developed according to Lippincott standards, which covered
the different types of gastrostomy tube types, nursing interventions, and documentation practices.
The module included a didactic component and hands-on practice with gastric tube models. A
pre-and post-test knowledge check was conducted to evaluate the learning outcomes. All 43
TICU staff registered nurses at the facility participated. After the educational module's
implementation, significant improvements were observed in nursing staff knowledge regarding
gastrostomy tubes. The median score for the pre-test was 70%, increasing to 100% on the post-
test. Wilcoxon sign-rank test showed a statistically significant difference between pre- and post-
test scores, z = 5.207, p < .001. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the education
module in improving TICU nurses' knowledge of gastric tube care.