Effect of Demonstration Regarding Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy Tube Feeding among Caregivers of Patients Diagnosed with Esophageal Carcinoma

Background: Esophageal carcinoma is one of the painful and excruciating sufferings among patients that affect around 5.3% of all global cancer deaths. Most of the patients undergo percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube procedure that make them prone for nutritional discrepancies. A PEG tube can result in severe problems when sufficient and proper care is not provided. Aim: The study aimed to assess the effect of demonstration on the caregiver's practices regarding percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube feeding of patients diagnosed with esophageal carcinoma. Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the practices of the caregivers regarding percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube feeding among their patients. The study was conducted in the Institute of radiotherapy and nuclear medicine (IRNUM) Hospital, Peshawar. Total 60 of the caregivers of esophageal carcinoma patients were taken as a sample size. A validated 12-items checklist was used to evaluate the practices of caregivers regarding gastrostomy tube feeding of their patients diagnosed with esophageal carcinoma. Results: There was an increase in the number of patients with good practices from 20% to 40% and a decrease in configuration in poor practices from 45 % to 22 % after the skill demonstration. The patient practices were significantly improved (0.000), indicating the positive effect of the nursing intervention. Moreover, the demographic variables showed no significant correlation with the participants’ practices. Conclusion: The study concluded that the demonstration regarding percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube feeding was helpful and had positive impact on improving the practices of caregivers to feed their patients living with esophageal carcinoma. Therefore, the health care professionals need to be well equipped to train the caregivers for feeding their patients with percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy at their homes.