Positioning of gastric-fed patients receiving mechanical ventilation is an important nursing intervention to decrease gastroesophageal reflux, aspiration, and ventilator-associated pneumonia. In supine patients, the esophagus is positioned horizontally. With 45º head-of-bed (HOB) elevation, the esophagus is above horizontal and reflux of gastric contents is counterbalanced by gravity.1 To reduce the risk of aspiration, many organizations’ guidelines recommend 30º to 45º HOB elevation for patients receiving mechanical ventilation.2–6 The guidelines are based on several studies7–12 that indicated that aspiration or rates of ventilator-associated pneumonia were lower when HOB elevation was at or near 45º compared with having the patient supine or the HOB elevated less than 30º. However, several studies13–18 demonstrated that patients are usually maintained at HOB elevations less than 30º. Rose et al17 stated that maintaining patients at 45º HOB elevation may not be clinically feasible.