Educational intervention program regarding safe administration of chemotherapy: A quasiexperimental study among nursing personnel in a tertiary care hospital.

Abstract

Chemotherapy is one of the major choices for treatment of cancer and closely controlling this fatal disease. A registered nurse is primarily responsible for administering chemotherapy with specific drug knowledge and expertise in preparation, administration, and toxicity management. One of the hazards in the healthcare settings is the occupational exposure to chemotherapeutic or cytotoxic drugs. Hence, the study was conducted aiming to evaluate the effectiveness of educational intervention programs in relation to safe administration of chemotherapy among nursing personnel. One group pretest post-test design with quasiexperimental design and the nonprobability purposive sampling technique was employed to select 38 nursing personnel in different chemotherapy units. The data were collected using a structured knowledge questionnaire consisting of 27 knowledge items from different areas like chemotherapy preparation, administration, management of side effects, management of extravasation, safe handling practices, and chemotherapy exposure. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized for analysis and interpretation of the obtained data. The overall mean of pretest knowledge score regarding safe administration of chemotherapy among nursing personnel was 16.21 ± 3.82, and the post-test knowledge score was 20.49±2.00. The educational intervention was beneficial in enhancing the knowledge score (P < 0.001). Moreover, after the educational intervention, 68% of the respondents had very good knowledge, 11% had excellent knowledge, and 21% had good knowledge (P < 0.001). The educational intervention program was beneficial in meliorating the knowledge of nursing personnel on safe administration of chemotherapy.