Placing a nasogastric tube is a critical skill for nurses providing care in many different care settings. Their use is often indicated for both diagnostic and therapeutic treatment of patients, including to assess and treat upper gastrointestinal tract bleeding, withdraw gastric contents for analysis, allow gastric lavage, to provide long- and short-term feeding, to administer medications, and for gastric decompression. This program describes types of nasogastric tubes, looks at indications and contraindications for their use, demonstrates how to properly insert a tube, identifies signs of respiratory distress that indicate the tube has entered the trachea, and describes how to verify placement of the tube in the stomach. It also reviews the procedure for removing a tube and explains what to document.