Hi everyone, so I am a new grad working in a level III NICU. I am almost done with my orientation and had a bit of a disagreement with my preceptor last night. So my patient was full term, stable, and had an NG which we were using q 3 feed and to infuse any left over ML's from their bottle feedings. I did my assessment, and fed my patient the bottle which they took 100%. Later that night my preceptor asked why I did not chart any residual prior to that feed. I explained that because I did not use the NG and was not concerned about the patients gut, I did not check. The patient had no spits, emesis and girths were the same 2x. I told her that I also felt that checking for placement before offering the bottle seemed odd because I was under the impression you would want to check tube placement as close to initiating the gavage feeding as possible. In theory, the NG/OG could move during feeding or burping. It should be noted that I used the NG three times prior that night, and each time when checking residual there was none. Naturally, I injected air and checked placement with my stethoscope each time.
What do you guys think, should I have checked for placement/residual prior to the bottle feed like she said? Would you have?
