Tap water

[WhiteLily]

Why do we use free (tap) water to administer to pts with NG tubes, as opposed to saline water?

[rachelgeorgina]

I work with disabled kids who are, largely, gastrostomy fed. We prime, flush and often feed with regular tap water, or, sometimes, filtered water from the dispenser. It's going into their belly, right? The same as water you and I might drink will end up in the same spot.

[whipping girl in 07, RN]

Where I work we use sterile water for TF flushes to decrease the risk of infection. I'm not sure if it was my institution, but several years ago patients got Legionella from tap water and we changed our practice.

However, when I do home teaching, I tell patients to use their own tap water for flushes if they normally drink it.

Tube feeding never has enough "free water" so you always need to have some flushes for hydration.

Wow, scary that a nurse thought you could flush a PICC with water if the patient was on TPN. Generally, hydration for patients on TPN is provided with additional sterile water added during the compounding or with IVF.

[talaxandra]

The problem was more the lack of any kind of critical thought process. I suspect she had no real understanding of how enteral and parenteral feeds differ, either in route or constitution, but just thought *feed - flush - water - tap - cup - ignore patient saying something about the way the other nurses flush it - syringe - done - man I am too good for this and should be working somewhere more challenging.*

PS Major metropolitan training hospital, medical multi-specialty unit