At our hospital, there is an At-Home Enteral Nutrition programme (NED in its Spanish acronym) with participation of the Clinical Nutrition Unit and the Pharmacy Service. The products and all necessary material are dispensed directly to the patient's home and nutritional follow-up is carried out. As a lack of information on various aspects of NED was detected among prescribing doctors, we decided to carry out a survey to assess the level of awareness and the opinion of doctors in the province of Tarragona with regard to NED. They were asked if they knew the indications and characteristics of the different enteral nutrition preparations, as well as their opinion on who should do the follow-up of the patients and on how dispensation should be organized. With the results obtained, we conclude that doctors rarely prescribe NED and are not familiar with the indications nor with enteral nutrition preparations (77.5% and 89%, respectively), although they are interested in the subject. They feel that dispensation should be done directly at the patient's home (43%) and that follow-up should be through a specialized team (57.6%).
Enteral Nutrition Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice