Current evidence of education and safety requirements for the nursing administration of chemotherapy: An integrative review

PURPOSE: The administration of chemotherapy is a complex task which has many safety issues. Safe administration of chemotherapy by nurses should be evidence-based. The aim of this integrative review was to synthesise the evidence about education and practice requirements for safe administration of chemotherapy by nurses. METHOD: A systematic search of four databases identified 17 studies for inclusion in this review. Key words: Nurse, chemotherapy, cytotoxic drug, administration, safety, education. Data extracted from the studies included author, year, aims, design, sample, outcome measures and findings. After screening the articles, extracting study data and completing a summary table, critical appraisal of the studies was completed using the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT). RESULTS: All the studies focused on strategies to promote patient and nurse safety during nursing administration of chemotherapy. Content analysis identified five themes: governance, process safeguards, communication, interdisciplinary collaboration and education. Key strategies or interventions that increased patient and/or nurse safety identified were standardised computer-generated chemotherapy orders, barcodes, medication safety procedures, education and simulated learning. CONCLUSIONS: This review found low-level evidence exists about the education and safety requirements for nursing administration of chemotherapy. High-level research is needed to assist healthcare services to select evidence-based educational and safety strategies and provide appropriately resourced work environments to support the safe nursing administration of chemotherapy and deliver the best possible patient outcomes.