PEG tube residual

[dreamingofbeing]

A long story short we have a patient with a newly inserted PEG tube that just started tube feedings my question is how often should residuals be checked? I tried to find something in our policy and procedures but came up empty. I found a website that said to flush every 4 hours but nothing about residual. Just curious what you do at your facility. Thanks.

[Wolfe24]

Don't you just check it before putting anything in it? Thats what I seem to be remembering from a few semesters ago in school.

[RNMeg]

I was taught to check residual when you flush *shrug*

[snowfreeze, BSN, RN]

I have seen orders for Q4/hr. That is about how often I do them on my unit. A long term tube can be checked once or twice a day unless there is a change in their condition.

[estherojin]

on our floor, we check residuals with our scheduled flushes for pts on continuous feeds. i'd check residuals more frequently on pts who have distended abd, who havent had a bm for a while.

[husker_rn, RN]

I work LTC and we check with every med pass and once a shift. Of course we know our residents and if something doesn't look quite right we would check more often.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Every four hours is the protocol on our floor, med-surg.

[nlion87]

Hourly when feeding intitiated, then every 4hrs or before giving any meds or adding more feeding for infusion

[jessiern, BSN, RN]

We check every 4 hours.

[NurseLinda92, LPN]

in my 16 yrs of experience, we've always checked residual prior to admin meds, feedings, or water flushes, and hold any fluids, etc if there is 60-100cc's of residual.

[smstar1996]

Where I work, Dietary figures out how much and how often to flush. I check residual when I check for placment.

[SixFive]

with a continuous feeding, check the residuals every 4 hours and before any flush or medication administration.

With bolus feedings, check the residual before the bolus.