Special Report Parenteral Nutrition Safe Practices: Results of the 2003 American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Survey*

ABSTRACT. Background: The American Society for Paren-teral and Enteral Nutrition (A.S.P.E.N.) recently published a revision of its “Safe Practices for Parenteral Nutrition ” guide-lines. Because there is a paucity of published scientific evi-dence to support good practices related to ordering, com-pounding, and administering parenteral nutrition (PN), a survey was performed in the process of the revision to gain insight into the discrepancies between reported practices and previous guidelines. Methods: A web-based survey consisting of 45 questions was conducted (n 651) June 1–30, 2003. Respondents were queried about primary practice setting, professional background, processes for writing PN orders, computer order entry of PN orders, problems with PN orders, and adverse events related to PN. Results: There were 651 survey responses, 90 % of which were from hospital-base