| |
The research of a Gundersen Lutheran Pediatric/Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (PNICU) nurse is getting nationwide attention. Neonatal Network, a national journal for neonatal nurses, featured a manuscript by Lynn Sturm, RN, in its July/August 2005 issue, titled "The Implementation and Evaluation of a Home Gavage Feeding Program for the Preterm Infant."
Sturm looked into the efficiency of Gundersen Lutheran's home gavage feeding program. Typically, gavage feeding happens only in the NICU and is done by trained nurses. Home gavage allows parents to take their premature infants home sooner. Instead of waiting for the infant to feed from the breast or bottle 100 percent of the time, the baby can go home with a gavage tube, which is inserted through the nose to the stomach. The baby feeds as long as he can by breast or bottle and his parents give him the rest of the feeding through the tube.
Sturm's research into the home gavage program began in 2002, when she was a nursing fellow in Gundersen Lutheran's Nursing Research Fellowship program. During the study, 52 babies were sent home using the home gavage method. "Most importantly, we studied the safety of the program because the babies safety always comes first. I found that no babies were readmitted to the hospital as a result of the home gavage feedings and parents were satisfied with the program. Of the families surveyed, 94 percent said they were glad they had done it. Parents said the benefits to getting their baby home and being a family sooner were overwhelming," shares Sturm.
Saving healthcare dollars was an unexpected benefit of the program. "I learned that the average family was able to go home about seven days sooner. At the time of the research, the money saved was more than half a million dollars. That doesn't include the cost savings to the parents who were driving to the hospital everyday to visit their child," says Sturm.
Parents are not forced to do home gavage feedings. If they feel it's not a choice for them, we don't push," says Sturm. "If you have three kids at home already, home gavage might not work. Families need to feel comfortable and we need to look into the baby's best interest. The baby comes first."
|