This presentation will examine the common practice of routinely aspirating and evaluating gastric residuals prior to feeding in very low birth weight infants. Potential risks and benefits of routinely evaluating gastric residuals will be discussed including the latest research regarding this procedure.

• This course contains three separate lessons, with a short quiz at the end of each lesson.
• Quizzes may be taken more than once for an improved score.
• You will be required to complete an evaluation at the end of this course.
• A certificate will be available after the completion of the course evaluation.

This program has been approved for 1.0 contact hours; provider approved by the California Board of Registered Nursing, CEP 13692.

Presenter

Leslie A. Parker, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, FAAN

Associate Professor, College of Nursing, University of Florida

Leslie Parker has a dual position at the College of Nursing and the College of Medicine at the University of Florida where she is an associate professor.  She has been a neonatal nurse practitioner since 1990 and continues to practice as a NNP in the NICU at UF Health. She was the tract coordinator of the neonatal nurse practitioner program from 1992-2011.  She has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for her team’s work regarding neonatal nutrition including the risks and benefits of gastric residual evaluation and optimizing consumption of breast milk for preterm infants. Leslie and her team were recently awarded an RO1 from the National Institutes of Health to study feeding tube contamination.