Alyumni Rabaa A, Aldubayan Khalid A, Alsoqeah Fatimah F, Alruwaili Nawaf W
Department of Community Health Sciences, College of Applied Medical Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11433, Saudi Arabia.
Int J Health Sci (Qassim). 2023 Sep-Oct;17(5):5-14.
Nutritional protocols and guidelines are essential to guide health-care practitioners toward effective enteral feeding management for critically ill patients. Despite the wide availability of international guidelines to direct enteral feeding practices, there are no nutritional guidelines regarding enteral feeding practices tailored for the Saudi Arabian population. In addition, different enteral feeding practices may result in negative outcomes like malnutrition.
A qualitative study was conducted through multiple focus group sessions. Pre-formulated structured open-ended questions were asked from the participants during the focus group sessions to gain an in-depth understanding of the current enteral feeding practices. All sessions were audio-recorded, and the transcript was coded and cross-validated.
A total of five focus group sessions were conducted until data saturation was reached. Data saturation was reached when no additional information was mentioned in the fifth focus group session when compared to all previous sessions. All 24 participants were specialized in the clinical nutrition field with enteral feeding experience in critically ill patients and working in Riyadh city. Twelve themes of the current practices, four themes of obstacles, and four themes of needs were identified with subthemes.
This qualitative study shows different enteral feeding practices, obstacles, and needs among registered dietitians. Thus, the need for developing national nutritional guidelines tailored to local population characteristics is highlighted. National guidelines are recommended to be compatible with a defined registered dietitian role with clear standards of practices and responsibility for each discipline to achieve a competent health care service.
营养方案和指南对于指导医护人员对重症患者进行有效的肠内营养喂养管理至关重要。尽管有广泛可用的国际指南来指导肠内营养喂养实践，但针对沙特阿拉伯人群的肠内营养喂养实践却没有营养指南。此外，不同的肠内营养喂养实践可能会导致营养不良等负面结果。
通过多次焦点小组会议进行了一项定性研究。在焦点小组会议期间向参与者提出预先制定的结构化开放式问题，以深入了解当前的肠内营养喂养实践。所有会议均进行了录音，并对文字记录进行了编码和交叉验证。
共进行了五次焦点小组会议，直至达到数据饱和。与之前所有会议相比，当第五次焦点小组会议未提及额外信息时，即达到了数据饱和。所有24名参与者均为临床营养领域的专家，有重症患者肠内营养喂养经验，且在利雅得市工作。确定了当前实践的12个主题、障碍的4个主题和需求的4个主题，并带有子主题。
这项定性研究显示了注册营养师之间不同的肠内营养喂养实践、障碍和需求。因此，突出了制定符合当地人群特征的国家营养指南的必要性。建议国家指南与明确界定的注册营养师角色相兼容，为每个学科制定明确的实践标准和责任，以实现胜任的医疗保健服务。
