Promoting Adherence to Chemotherapy Handling Guidelines Among Oncology Nurses
University of Cincinnati
Summary
Chemotherapy exposure is a serious occupational hazard affecting oncology nurses. Oncology nurses' adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines is essential to prevent their exposure to chemotherapy. The goal of this research is to develop, validate, and pilot test an intervention "Workplace program to Improve Safe Handling of hazardous drugs" (WISH), to promote adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses. The WISH intervention includes two components: an educational component and debriefing sessions on chemotherapy exposure incidents. First, the research team will use a mixed-methods approach to develop an online educational component on chemotherapy safety, establish the content validity of the educational content based on experts' evaluation, and establish the face validity of the educational content by conducting three qualitative focus group with oncology nurses (n=4-6 nurses per group) or individual interviews. Next, the research team will test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention using a pilot randomized controlled trial with two groups of oncology nurses, an intervention group (n= 30) and a control group (n=30). We will obtain quantitative and qualitative measures of the intervention feasibility and acceptability. The output is an intervention program targeted to train nurses on safe chemotherapy handling guidelines. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations. The intermediate outcome is the adoption of the intervention program by healthcare institutions to train nurses on chemotherapy handling guidelines. The end outcome is promoting adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses.
Description
Oncology nurses are at risk for the dangerous health problems of chemotherapy exposure. Chemotherapy exposure is defined as the direct contact with chemotherapy drugs that occurs through skin absorption, hand-to-mouth ingestion, inhalation, and injection with a sharp contaminated object. In order to prevent chemotherapy exposure incidents among nurses, it is important that nurses follow the safe chemotherapy handling guidelines. Unfortunately, the adherence to these guidelines among nurses is lower than the recommended level. The review of the literature reveals the need for an intervention th…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * being at least 18 years old * able to read and speak English * working as an oncology nurse for at least 3 months * handling chemotherapy drugs at work Exclusion Criteria: * None
Interventions
- BehavioralThe Workplace program to Improve the Safe Handling of hazardous drugs (WISH)
The WISH intervention is targeted to promote the adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses. The WISH intervention will include two components 1) an individualized online educational component on chemotherapy exposure and the safe handling guidelines with incorporating novel instructional technology tools and 2) debriefing sessions on the incidents of chemotherapy exposure.
Location
- University of CincinnatiCincinnati, Ohio