hi everybody i am that nursing prof and welcome to my channel in today's video we're going to be inserting an ng tube so the first thing we need to do is gather all of our supplies so we're going to need some gloves of course the ng tube itself a bit of tape some ph strips some lubricant our big syringe and then a cup with a straw once we've done all that now we can go wash our hands verify the patient with two identifiers and provide privacy something that's not mandatory for this but most nurses do because they find it helpful is to take the tube and put it in some warm like room temperature water to help loosen it up before you insert it you want to make sure the bed is at a height for you that's comfortable so you're not going to hurt yourself and that the patient is in a high fowler's position the side of the bed you're on is the nostril you're going to choose so i'm on this side of the bed i'm going to use this nostril to put the tube down i'm not going to reach around and try to use the other nostril okay that's just going to be a hassle and yes some people have one nostril that's better than the others so you try to do it on this side and it's just not working and you're like you know what i think i need to use the other nostril go on the other side of the bed to do it don't ever try to reach around you're just going to make it so much harder on yourself so this is the side of the bed i'm on this is the nostril i'm using so now we need to measure the tubing so we'll start from the tip of the nose we'll go to the ear and then we'll go to the xiphoid process so about mid sternum so this is about how long we're going to go with our tubing okay some tubing has marks on it like this so you'll know if it doesn't have marks on it then just take like a little piece of tape and put it at that place so that way you know how far to go so once we measured once we know how far we're supposed to go we're going to take our lubricant dip our tubing in the lubricant we're trying to make this as comfortable as possible for the patient then when we insert it you'll note how it kind of has this natural curve to it already if you can see that you want to use that to your advantage so go with the curve angle down as if you're trying to get to the opposite ear so we'll insert it just a little bit ask the patient how you doing are you okay and they'll say yeah i'm fine now we're gonna have them help us so you're gonna give them a cup of water with the straw and say while i'm advancing this tube can you please take some small sips and swallow so they're going to do that and that's going to help you get the tube down okay because they're going to help swallow that tube all right now we've reached the point that we were measured at the next thing we need to do is check placement one little tip as you're advancing it if you notice they're starting to cough or they're starting to act like they're choking or you're talking to them and you're like how are you mr johnson and they can't really respond to you you are in the wrong spot okay you are in the trachea not the esophagus and that's not great okay you don't want to be in there that's not what this is for so if that's the case then obviously you need to remove the tube when inserting the tube it's also a good idea to hook the patient up to the pulse ox so you can keep an eye on how they're doing so to check placement you're going to need your big syringe you'll attach it to the bottom and just pull out a little bit of contents okay you don't need a ton then we're gonna use our ph strips put them on the ph strips and it should become acidic that's how we know we're in the stomach a ph of one to four is indicative of proper placement a chest x-ray will commonly be ordered to verify placement as well now we're ready to tape if you have a stat lock which is a little device that like pinches the tubing and then also sticks to the nose use that if you don't have one of those this is what you do to the tape so you would get a big piece of tape and then cut it down the middle halfway then this part's going to go on the nose so we'll put this part on the nose and then this part we're going to wrap around the tubing and this is going to help secure it in place so it doesn't go anywhere there we go so now it's in and you can get a safety pin or you can even get another piece of tape and then secure it to the gown we don't want this to get accidentally yanked or removed or anything like that so there we go we have our ng tube so that was my video on how to insert an ng tube i hope you found this helpful don't forget to like and subscribe if you have any questions or comments please let me know and if not i'll see you on the next one you