Competency of nurses on safe administration of cytotoxic drugs: Gaps and intervention

BACKGROUND: Chemotherapeutic drugs (CDs) have been used for many years in cancer treatment. During preparation, transportation, administration, and disposal of chemotherapy waste and bodily fluids, nurses’ health is at risk due to improper handling of CDs. Nurses are usually inexperienced and lack knowledge regarding containment and disposal of spills. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. Data were collected from 117 nurses divided into experimental (n = 59) and comparison (n = 58) group. Intervention was given to experimental group comprising of 1 hour theoretical teaching and 20 minutes duration simulation-aided hands-on sessions on chemotherapy administration. RESULT: The study findings showed that the mean post-test competency (44.31 ± 4.39), knowledge (20.69 ± 2.54), skills (15.42 ± 2.09), and clinical decision-making ability (8.19 ± 1.25) scores of nurses in experimental group were higher than the mean-post-test competency (15.17 ± 3.01), knowledge (6.26 ± 2.87), skills (8.34 ± 0.71), and clinical decision-making ability (0.57 ± 0.77) scores in comparison group. CONCLUSION: Simulation-based learning on safe administration of cytotoxic drugs was effective in enhancing the competency of nurses.