Hi. I'm Meris. And in this video, I'm going to be covering
Nasogastric or NG tubes. I'm going to be talking about the different types, their indications,
insertion, confirming placement, and removal. So lots of really great content. I'm going to be
following along using our fundamentals of nursing flashcards. These are available on our website,
leveluprn.com. And if you already have a set of your own, I would invite you to follow
along with me. I'm starting on card number 108. Let's get started. So, first of all, what is an
NG tube? Well, Naso means nose, and gastric means stomach. So an NG tube goes to the stomach
through the nose by way of the nose. Why do we use them? There's a bunch of different reasons.
One of the big ones is going to be decompression. So if we have something going on where we need to
remove fluid or gas from the stomach, we can do so with an NG tube. And then we can also use this for
administering things like medications or even enteral feeding, so giving food through an NG
tube. Now there's two different types that you need to be familiar with. The first is double
lumen and the second is small-bore single lumen. So double lumen the example we give here is Salem
Sump. You can remember that it's a double because it has two S's, Salem Sump. And the biggest use
for this one is going to be decompression. So double lumen decompression. Okay. So this
is a large-bore tube. So that means it's going to be more irritating to your patient's nose,
but it works as a sump, meaning that it actually filters air through as well so that
the tube does not stick to the stomach while it is set to suction. So this is ideal for suction,
and you can administer feeds and medications through it. But it's going to be for a much
shorter time than our small-bore single lumen tubes. We have a couple of examples here. Dobhoff
is the one that you're probably familiar with. But small bore, meaning it's skinnier, the diameter
is smaller. So this is going to be best for medication administration and administering feeds.
Moving on, we're going to talk about inserting an NG tube. So as you can see on this card,
we actually have step by step in order how to insert an NG tube. Remember, this is just based on
kind of best practices. Your school may have you do some extra steps. Your facility policies may be
different. So this is just a guideline, not a hard and fast rule. I'm not going to go through line by
line with you, but I want to point out some of the important things here. The first is how do
we measure an NG tube? How do we know how much of this tube to put down into the patient? So we're
going to use the NEX method, so NEX. So that's going to be measuring from the nose to the ear
lobe and from the ear lobe to the xiphoid process at the bottom of the sternum. That's going to help
us to estimate the length needed. And we're going to want to mark that length with either tape or an
indelible marker, meaning something permanent. It's not going to wash off. The other thing is
we have to lubricate the tip of the tube. This is very painful in general to have a tube put down.
I've had an NG tube. It is not a fun experience. But if you don't lubricate it, you could cause
real damage to your patients' [narrows?]. The other thing is that we are going to encourage
our patients to either swallow or sip water and swallow as we advance the NG tube. The act of
swallowing will help us to advance that tube and make it a little bit more comfortable for our
patient. And then don't ever push past resistance. If you feel resistance, you need to stop.
Okay. Now let's talk about how do we confirm placement of an NG tube? The only
way that we can 100% without a shadow of a doubt confirm that the NG tube is in the correct place
is with an x ray. The radiologist will read the x ray and say, yes, it is in the stomach or, no,
it's somewhere else. Right. And that's the only way that we can say for sure. But we also don't
want to expose our patients to unnecessary x rays. So we are only going to do this after
placing the NG tube. So when we place the tube, we're not going to use it. We're not going to put
anything down it or set up suction until we know 100% sure it's in the right place. So that's very
important because you don't want to accidentally feed the lungs, right? That could be disastrous.
At the bedside, though, before you use the NG tube in the future, you want to assess placement
by using one of multiple methods. The big one is going to be checking the gastric residual--
well, the gastric PH, I should say. When you pull back on the NG tube with a syringe,
you want to test the PH of that fluid. Remember, we have a highly acidic gastric environment. So
I am expecting that if I'm in the stomach, anything that I aspirate from there that's
gastric fluid is going to have a PH less than 5.5. All right. Let's talk about removing an NG tube.
Removal is much easier than insertion. Big thing is that I want to say you should flush
that tube beforehand. It's optional. You don't have to, but it clears that tubing.
So use water or air to flush it, and then tell your patient to take a deep breath and hold it and
remove that tube swiftly and quickly, kind of in one fluid motion so that you're not subjecting
them to this long, drawn out removal. And then afterwards, your patient's probably going to want
to blow their nose, and they may even want oral care as well. So be sure to offer that to them
so that they can be as comfortable as possible. All right. I hope that review of NG tubes was
helpful. If it was, please like this video. If you have a great way to remember something
or if you have something to share with us, please do so in the comments. I would love to hear it,
and I know everybody else watching would as well. Be sure to subscribe to the channel as well,
because we have some pretty great stuff coming out and you want to be the first to know.
So the next video in this series is going to cover parenteral and enteral nutrition. I hope to see
you there. Thanks so much and happy studying. Oh, my gosh. I totally forgot about my first
experience putting an NG tube down when I was in nursing school. I had a patient who was
confused, and he kept pulling his NG tube out. So we kept having to put the NG tube in. And so they
offered me the chance to do it. And, first of all, I was just shaking, like absolutely shaking. But
the patient kept kind of closing off his throat area. He was putting his tongue back,
so we couldn't advance it. And it kept curling in his mouth. But he didn't want to say anything
because he hated it. So it was just curling in his mouth. And then he would open his mouth to speak,
and it would spill out. So be sure to assess to make sure that it's not curling in the mouth. But
I really felt for him because having had an NG tube, I can tell you,
they are not fun. You don't want one. So I totally get it. I felt really bad for him. But
point being, make sure that you're going in the stomach because that was not in the stomach.
I invite you to subscribe to our channel and share a link with your classmates and
friends in nursing school. If you found value in this video, be sure and hit the like button,
and leave a comment and let us know what you found particularly helpful.