You should stop enteral feeding if the stomach is holding more than 2 hours' worth of formula. You shouldn't administer enteral feeding to a patient who's hyperglycemic. Protect them from harm by putting these common misconceptions to rest. According to one study, up to half of hospitalized patients may be malnourished. For these patients, the consequences are serious.
Wounds take longer to heal, immune systems deteriorate, and hospital stays lengthen.
Preventing or treating malnutrition should be one of your top nursing priorities. For an acutely ill patient, that may mean providing enteral feedings. Early enteral feeding can enhance wound healing and decrease the hypermetabolic response. Compared with parenteral nutrition, enteral feeding provides more nutrition per volume, causes fewer infectious complications, and costs much less. In this article, we'll discuss six common fallacies about enteral nutrition for acutely ill patients, explain why these assumptions aren't valid, and suggest better approaches to patient care.