Good practice guidance to support safe oral medication preparation and administration through feeding tubes

The objective of this work is to elaborate good practice guidance, aimed at preparing and administering drugs through feeding tube. This study was performed at a secondary level hospital in the interior of Sao Paulo state, Southeast Region of Brazil. For the first phase, a literature review was carried out in the following databases: LILACS, MEDLINE, Web of Science, and MICROMEDEX® Solutions. A manual search was also carried on other sources. In a second phase, the guide was refined for the hospital through meetings. Out of 104 references found, seven were read in full. The most employed technique for drug preparation was a simultaneous crushing of solid formulations. Participants identified a need to standardize techniques for drug preparation and administration through feeding tube, and the importance of using best practice guidance for patient safety was acknowledged. Key words: Feeding tube, medication errors, hospital, good practice.