PEG and PEJ (Enteral Feeding) Awareness

PEG and PEJ enteral feeding awareness training delivered at your workplace. Half a day. The clinical knowledge and observation skills that care staff need to support people who receive nutrition through a feeding tube, and to recognise when something isn’t right.

Course Overview

Picture a Tuesday morning in a care home. A care worker supporting a resident with a long-established PEG tube notices something has changed at the insertion site. Nothing dramatic, perhaps some redness or swelling that wasn’t there the day before. Without training, it’s easy to put that down to normal variation and carry on. Here’s how that plays out in practice: the change is gradual, nobody raises it, and by the time it’s escalated, what had been a manageable infection has become significantly more complex.

Awareness training doesn’t turn care workers into clinicians, but it gives them what they need to act at the right moment, not the wrong one. Knowing what a healthy PEG site looks like, understanding the early signs of infection or displacement, and being confident enough to raise a concern promptly aren’t clinical skills. They are care skills, and they have a direct impact on outcomes. This course gives care and support staff working alongside individuals receiving nutrition through gastrostomy and jejunostomy feeding routes a grounded, practical understanding of how PEG and PEJ feeding work, how risks present, and how to support safe, consistent practice within a structured care plan. It also introduces awareness of other enteral feeding routes, including NG and JEJ tubes, so staff can recognise differences and respond appropriately.

Content is aligned with current expectations from CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment, NICE guideline CG32 (Nutrition support for adults), and recognised best practice from the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN).

Course Details

  • Duration: Half day (flexible depending on service needs)
  • Delivery: Face-to-face, in-house at your workplace or chosen venue
  • Certificate: HTN and CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in PEG and PEJ Enteral Feeding Awareness
  • Awarding organisations: HTN, CPD-Accredited
  • Validity: No formal expiry. Annual refresher recommended, given the clinical risk involved. Competency assessment and sign-off available on request.
  • Group size: Maximum 12 learners per trainer

Who This Course Is For

This course is right for care and support staff who work alongside individuals receiving nutrition through PEG or PEJ feeding tubes.

  • Care assistants and support workers
  • Healthcare assistants
  • Domiciliary care workers
  • Residential and nursing home staff
  • Personal Assistants supporting individuals with complex needs
  • Staff new to supporting individuals with PEG or PEJ feeding

No prior knowledge of enteral feeding is needed. The course builds understanding from the ground up, while still being relevant for more experienced staff who need to refresh or formalise their knowledge. It is particularly relevant where staff are supporting, observing, or working alongside clinically trained practitioners rather than acting independently in a clinical capacity.

If your team needs a broader grounding in nutrition and hydration across all care settings, rather than enteral feeding specifically, our Nutrition and Hydration in Care Settings course may be the better starting point. Under CQC Regulation 18: Staffing, providers must ensure staff are suitably trained, competent, and supported to carry out their roles safely. This course supports that requirement.

Why This Training Matters

Enteral feeding carries significant clinical risk. Without an adequate level of understanding, errors in practice can lead to:

  • Aspiration
  • Tube displacement or migration
  • Infection at the insertion site
  • Tube blockage
  • Incorrect administration of feed or medication
  • Deterioration in the individual’s condition

Under CQC Regulation 12: Safe Care and Treatment, providers must ensure that care is delivered safely and that risks are assessed and mitigated. NICE guideline CG32 supports structured, safe approaches to nutritional care and monitoring, including enteral tube feeding, and it is clear that everyone involved in the care of someone receiving enteral nutrition needs an appropriate level of training for their role.

The people who spend the most time with a resident or client are often the first to notice when something isn’t right. A site that looks different. A tube that seems to have shifted. A person who is uncomfortable in a way they weren’t before. Recognising those changes and escalating appropriately and promptly, in line with the individual’s care plan, is exactly what this course builds. Where relevant, the course also covers applying the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 for individuals receiving enteral feeding.

PEG, PEJ, NG, and JEJ: Understanding the Different Feeding Routes

PEG (percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy) and PEJ (percutaneous endoscopic jejunostomy) tubes are placed directly through the abdominal wall, into the stomach for PEG and into the jejunum, part of the small intestine, for PEJ. A nasogastric (NG) tube runs from the nose into the stomach and is typically used for shorter-term feeding. A jejunostomy (JEJ) tube also feeds into the jejunum but may be placed surgically rather than endoscopically, often where gastric feeding isn’t appropriate.

The route matters because the risks and what counts as normal differ between them. A JEJ or PEJ tube bypasses the stomach entirely, so signs that would be relevant for a PEG, such as gastric residual volume, work differently for jejunal feeding. This course focuses on PEG and PEJ specifically, while building enough awareness of NG and JEJ tubes that staff can recognise which route an individual has, understand what’s normal for that route, and escalate accurately when something changes.

What the Day Covers

All content reflects NICE guideline CG32 and current CQC guidance throughout. Topics covered include:

  • Introduction to enteral feeding and clinical context
  • PEG and PEJ tubes explained
  • Overview of NG and JEJ tubes for contextual awareness
  • Anatomy and physiology relevant to feeding routes
  • Feeding methods, including bolus and pump feeding
  • Equipment handling and safety considerations
  • Infection prevention and control
  • Recognising and responding to complications
  • Positioning, monitoring, and observation before, during, and after feeding
  • Documentation and record keeping
  • Roles, responsibilities, and professional boundaries
  • Working within care plans and clinical guidance

Every course is also built to include your care plans, documentation, and escalation procedures as standard.

How the Course Is Delivered

This course is delivered face-to-face at your workplace or chosen venue. Training includes hands-on simulated practice using training aids, allowing learners to build understanding in a safe, structured environment. Practical elements are supported by clear instruction, demonstration, and guided discussion.

Groups are capped at 12 to ensure every learner gets sufficient hands-on practice time. We adapt every session to your service, incorporating your care plans and documentation, your escalation procedures, your clinical governance framework, your infection prevention policies, and the complexity of your service users.

Sessions include:

  • Trainer-led demonstrations
  • Supervised simulation-based practice
  • Scenario-based learning
  • Real-world case discussion

Competency Assessment and Sign-Off

Competency assessment and sign-off are available as part of this course and can be incorporated into the session design. This allows organisations to evidence that staff are not only trained but also assessed as competent to carry out specific aspects of enteral feeding care in line with internal policies and clinical governance requirements.

This must be requested at the time of booking. We cannot add competency assessment retrospectively after a session has been delivered. When you request it, we ask you to share your competency framework in advance so the assessment and sign-off process can be aligned to your organisation’s standards and documentation, rather than a generic framework that may not reflect how your service operates.

For organisations whose staff carry direct clinical responsibilities beyond observation and escalation, including feed pump set-up, medication administration via feeding tubes, or hands-on tube management, we can design a programme that addresses those responsibilities specifically. This goes beyond the standard awareness course. Tell us what your staff actually do in their role, and we will be straight with you about what level of training they need and how to structure it.

Certification and Validity

On completion, learners receive an HTN and CPD-Accredited Certificate of Achievement in PEG and PEJ Enteral Feeding Awareness.

There is no formal expiry, but annual refresher training is recommended, given the clinical risk involved and how quickly confidence and recall fade without regular exposure. For staff who need a broader grounding in swallowing difficulties alongside enteral feeding, our Dysphagia Awareness course covers that related area in depth.

Why Organisations Book With Prima Cura

Most training providers arrive with a course. We arrive with yours.

Before the day, we gather information about your workplace: your incident reporting forms, your internal procedures, and the specific hazards your team actually faces. On the day, your trainer works that into every scenario, every discussion, every practical exercise. If your staff work in a care home, they’re not practising on hypothetical office workers. If your team are lone workers, that context shapes how the session runs.

It means the training lands. Not because it was well-delivered in a generic sense, but because it was relevant to the people in the room and the situations they’ll actually encounter.

A few other things that matter to the organisations that book with us:

  • 98.9% learner satisfaction across all Prima Cura courses
  • All trainers hold Enhanced DBS certificates and maintain ongoing CPD
  • We advise honestly on the qualification level at the enquiry stage. If a different course is a better fit for your workforce, we’ll say so before you book, not after

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Where We Deliver

We deliver in-house training at your workplace or chosen venue across Manchester, Greater Manchester, and the wider North West. We also deliver nationally across England, including North England, South England, London, and Surrey.

All sessions are led by experienced Prima Cura Training instructors. Groups are capped at 12 per trainer to protect the quality of hands-on learning.

Our associate network means we can deliver across England. You can meet the team on our Associates page.

FAQs

Is this course suitable for domiciliary care staff?

Yes. This course is suitable for staff working in domiciliary care as well as residential and nursing settings. It is particularly relevant for staff supporting individuals with PEG or PEJ tubes in their own homes, where there may be less immediate access to clinical professionals. The training helps staff understand how to provide safe, consistent support, recognise early signs of complications, and escalate concerns appropriately in line with care plans and organisational procedures.

Can this course be combined with other subjects on the same day?

Yes. This course is often delivered alongside related subjects such as Dysphagia Awareness, Nutrition and Hydration in Care Settings, or other clinical care topics. Combining subjects can be particularly useful where staff are supporting individuals with complex needs and need a broader understanding of safe care. We can work with you to design a combined programme that reflects your team’s roles, responsibilities, and training requirements.

Is this a clinical course?

No. This is an awareness-level course designed for care and support workers. It does not cover clinical procedures such as tube insertion or prescribing nutrition. Those responsibilities sit with appropriately qualified healthcare professionals. The course focuses on safe support, observation, and escalation within the care worker role.
That said, we do deliver more advanced clinical training in enteral feeding for organisations whose staff carry direct clinical responsibilities, including feed pump set-up and administration, medication administration via feeding tubes, and hands-on competency assessment against clinical governance frameworks. This must be requested at the time of booking and cannot be added retrospectively. If your team needs clinical-level training rather than awareness-level training, tell us when you enquire and we will build the right programme for your staff’s actual responsibilities. A care worker whose role includes administering feeds or medication via a tube needs more than this awareness course, and we will tell you that honestly before you book.

Is competency assessment available as part of this course?

Yes. Competency assessment and sign-off are available and can be incorporated into the session design, but must be requested at the time of booking. We cannot add competency assessment retrospectively after a session has been delivered. When you request it, we ask you to share your competency framework in advance so the assessment and sign-off process can be aligned to your organisation’s standards and documentation, rather than a generic framework that may not reflect how your service operates. This allows organisations to evidence that staff are not only trained but also assessed as competent to carry out specific aspects of enteral feeding care in line with internal policies and clinical governance requirements..

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Book or Enquire

Book your training or request a quote

Tell us your team size and your sector. We’ll come back with a quote, the right advice on qualification level, and a straight answer on whether this is the best course for your team.

We respond to all enquiries within one working day.

Our Commitment to Quality and Compliance

At Prima Cura Training, all courses reflect current UK guidance and best practice. All trainers are experienced professionals with relevant qualifications and ongoing CPD. Because many of the organisations we support work with vulnerable individuals, all trainers hold Enhanced DBS checks.

For clinical and high-risk subjects such as enteral feeding, we apply additional rigour to trainer selection, subject knowledge review, and content accuracy. Trainers delivering this course are selected based on professional experience in the relevant clinical area alongside their teaching qualifications. We do not cut corners on subject matter that directly affects vulnerable people.

This course is reviewed against updates from the Care Quality Commission, NICE, and current UK legislation, including the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Course content aligns with NICE guideline CG32, CQC Regulations 12 and 18, and recognised best practice from the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN).

You can read more on our Quality Assurance and Compliance page.

Reviewed by Stephanie Austin, Owner and Lead Trainer, Prima Cura Training | 25+ years in health and social care | 15+ years as a trainer | Last reviewed: June 2026 | Next review: June 2027

This page provides general information about enteral feeding awareness training. It is not a substitute for clinical training, competency assessment, or medical advice. Organisations remain responsible for ensuring staff are appropriately trained, assessed as competent, and working within their scope of practice in line with CQC requirements, local policies, and current clinical guidance. Training delivered by Prima Cura Training supports knowledge and awareness but does not replace supervised clinical competency assessment where required.

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