40 Implementation of a Nursing-driven Volume-based Enteral Feeding Protocol

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Nutrition in the burn patient is vital to proper wound healing and graft take, counteracting the hypermetabolic response, and improving patient outcomes. Studies support early, aggressive enteral nutrition for burn patients. Enteral nutrition is often interrupted during hospitalization, causing patients to fail to achieve their nutritional goals. To maximize nutritional support for burn patients, our institution implemented a nurse-driven, volume-based enteral infusion protocol (VBP). The goal of this quality improvement project was to compare clinical outcomes and volume of enteral nutrition received by the burn patient pre- and post-VBP. Methods A single-center retrospective analysis was conducted at one adult burn center comparing pre- and post-implementation of a VBP. Patients aged 18–89 years admitted to the SICU for initial management of burn injury between November 2014 – May 2015 (pre-VBP) and June 2015 – January 2016 (post-VBP) were included; for stepdown patients the time period ranged from June 2017 – December 2017 (pre-VBP) and February 2018 – September 2018 (post-VBP). Pertinent demographic and burn-related data were collected. Clinical outcomes included length of stay (LOS), complications as defined by National Burn Repository, duration of mechanical ventilation, percent weight gain or loss, and percent of enteral volume received. Results In the SICU, there were 10 patients pre-protocol and 12 patients post-protocol. When comparing pre-VBP to post-VBP demographics, mean TBSA was 19.6% (1–40.5) vs 24.83% (2–61.5%), with a mean age of 64.4 vs 60.7 years. For clinical outcomes, mean number of complications was 1.6 vs 2, with mean ventilator days of 16.2 vs 16.4, SICU mean length of stay/TBSA 1.99 vs 2.23 days, and hospital mean LOS/TBSA 3.83 vs 2.54 days. Overall prescribed amount of enteral nutrition received pre-VBP was 105% vs post-VBP amount received at 95% (p=0.09). For the step-down unit, there were 8 patients pre-protocol and 6 patients post-protocol. Overall prescribed amount of enteral nutrition received pre-VBP was 83% vs post-VBP amount received at 89% (p=0.3815). Conclusions While clinical outcomes remain unchanged during the evaluation period, our patients met their prescribed enteral nutrition volume requirements when a nurse-driven VBP was initiated. In addition, for non-ICU patients, a trend was seen towards increased tube feeds with VBP. Applicability of Research to Practice Nurse-driven VBPs allow for RNs to adjust the rate of enteral nutrition by “catching up” for interruptions in feeding to meet the patient’s nutritional goals for the day.