Oncology Nurses' Knowledge and Practices regarding Safe Administration of Intravenous Chemotherapy

Abstract

Background: Nurses are the corner stone in cancer care and the main roles of them are safe administering the therapy, managing side effects, educating patients and their families on the adverse effects of chemotherapy, and providing emotional support to patients through the process. Aim: This study aimed to assess oncology nurses' knowledge and practices regarding safe administration of intravenous chemotherapy. Design: A descriptive research design was utilized. Setting: This study was conducted at Damanhur Oncology Center. Subjects: A convenience sample of 35 nurses. Tools: Tool I: Oncology Nurse's Knowledge Questionnaire. Tool II: Oncology nurse's practices regarding safe administration of intravenous chemotherapy observational checklist. Results: Knowledge level of more than half (60%) of the studied nurses regarding safe administration of intravenous chemotherapy was good. All the studied nurses had unsatisfactory nursing practices before and after administration of intravenous chemotherapy and the majority of them had unsatisfactory practices level regarding verification of the patient and chemotherapy, administration of intravenous chemotherapy and during the administration (82.9%, 88.6%, 94.3% respectively).There were positive statistical significant differences between nurses' knowledge and sex, working shift and attendance of training workshops about patient safety where p = (0.022, 0.012, 0.046 respectively).There was positive statistical significant difference between nurses' practice mean scores and age, working department and attendance of training workshops where p = (0.021, 0.001, 0.016 respectively). Conclusion: Nurses' knowledge and practice regarding safe administration of chemotherapy were noticed to be good knowledge and unsatisfactory practices. Recommendation: In-service education programs for nurses.