Eating disorders: the impact of nasogastric feeding under restraint

Nursing Standard podcast discusses eating disorders, the legal and emotional challenges of nasogastric feeding under restraint, and the effects on nurses, patients and families

Nurses should have mandatory training on eating disorders because of an ‘alarming rise’ in the prevalence of such illnesses, according to a report.

Parliamentary report calls for a new national strategy to deal with eating disorders

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Eating Disorders also highlighted the ‘deeply alarming practice’ of discharging people with dangerously low body mass index scores in its report The Right To Health: People with Eating Disorders are Being Failed, published in January, and called for a new national strategy to deal with the issue.

In the latest episode of the Nursing Standard podcast we focus on eating disorders, specifically the issue of nasogastric feeding under restraint and how it relates to children, young people and adults.

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Joining podcast host Christine Walker, editor of Nursing Children and Young People and Mental Health Practice, are eating disorders dietitian Sarah Fuller of Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS), paediatric nurse Sharon Thomson of East London NHS Foundation Trust CAMHS, and clinical psychologist Jessica Conrad-Czaja who works in inpatient CAMHS at Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

• RELATED: Why eating disorders in children and young people are increasing: implications for practice

Legal, practical and emotional issues faced by nurses carrying out the procedure

They discuss what an eating disorder is and why a person may need to be kept alive by feeding through a nasogastric tube. They go on to discuss the legal, practical and emotional issues nurses face in carrying out the procedure safely, sometimes without consent and when the young person needs to be restrained.

• RELATED: Eating disorders: how to recognise, respond and promote recovery

Ms Fuller and Ms Thomson, who are among authors of two recent articles in Nursing Children and Young People, also discuss their research on the effects that this distressing procedure can have on nurses’ relationships with children and their families, and from families’ perspectives.

The psychological effects and how nurses can deal with such situations are also discussed.