Assessment of Knowledge and Practice of Staff Nurses Regarding Ryle's Tube Feeding in a Selected Hospital of Kolkata, West Bengal

A descriptive survey was conducted in a selected hospital, Kolkata with the aim to assess the knowledge and practice of staff nurses regarding Ryle's tube feeding, to find out relationship between knowledge and practice and to find out association with knowledge, practice and some selected variables. 42 staff nurses were selected by convenient sampling technique from the intensive therapeutic unit and high dependency unit of Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences hospital. A structured knowledge questionnaire and structured observation checklist were used to collect data. It was found that 32 (76%) participants had adequate knowledge and all (100%) had more than average practice level regarding Ryle's tube feeding. There was moderately positive correlation between knowledge and practice of staff nurses regarding Ryle's tube feeding(r=0.46). There was significant association between knowledge with professional qualification and period of experience but there was no significant association found between practice with period of experience and professional qualification.

Though the study findings indicated that the nurses had necessary knowledge and practice regarding Ryle's tube feeding but it was found that the hospital was not having any written guideline regarding Ryle's tube feeding for the patients. So the researchers recommended for continuous teaching program and establishment of evidenced based guideline in the hospital on Ryle's tube feeding.