University of Florida Associate Professor Leslie Parker, Ph.D., ARNP, NNP-BC, was notified August 3 by the National Institute of Nursing Research that her research grant proposal, Optimal Feeding Tube Dwell Time in VLBW to Reduce Feeding Tube Contamination, would be funded. This four-year, $2.4 million project will seek to determine the optimal time feeding tubes should be left in premature infants to prevent contamination and other complications.
This important research will fill an important knowledge gap regarding the use of feeding tubes and influence protocols and practices in the care of this vulnerable population of premature infants.