Effectiveness of Educational Program on Knowledge Regarding Safe Handling of Cancer Drugs among Staff Nurses

INTRODUCTION

Cancer is a group of disease which comprises of more than 200 diseases. They are considered as a disease of the aged, as the majority of patients (77%) diagnosed to have cancer are at the age of 55 years. It occurs in people of all ages, including children. However, there is significant variations in incidence of different types of cancer and it depends on the age, sex, geographical variation, heredity and so many other factors.^2,3,5

Globally cancer accounts for 5.1% of total disease and 12.5% of all deaths. In 2016, it was estimated to have 1,685,210 new cases of cancer in the US. In Puducherry the number of old cases in JIPMER hospital was 13,277 and the new case accounted for 1,116.¹ The hazardous effects of cancer drugs that they not only affect the cancer patients, but also harm the staff nurses who handle these drugs during their administration and disposal.^9–11

The nursing personnel should know how to handle the hazardous materials for safeguarding themselves, protect the patients and staff members.¹³ Nurses are the key person in cancer care unit and basically they require knowledge about handling of cancer drugs.^17,19 These safety precautions include identification of patient, preparation of drugs, verification and documentation of the administering cancer drugs, use of personal protective equipment; transport the chemotherapeutic agents, supplies and handling skill.^14–16

The conceptual framework for this study was derived from general system theory^6,7 (Ludwig von Bertalanffy, 1968).

OBJECTIVES

• To assess the level of knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs among staff nurses working in selected hospital.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of educational program regarding safe handling of cancer drugs among staff nurses working in selected hospital.
• To find out the association between the knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs with selected demographic variables of staff nurses.

HYPOTHESES

• H₁—There is a significant difference in pre-test and post-test level of knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs among staff nurses.
• H₂—There is a significant association between the level of knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs and selected demographic variables of staff nurses.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A quantitative research approach was adopted with the pre-experimental (one group pre-test post-test only) research design.^4,8 This study was conducted among 60 staff nurses working in Mahatma Gandhi Medical College Research Institute, Puducherry. Convenient sampling technique was used to select the samples. The pre-test was conducted by using structured questionnaire and the educational program was implemented to staff nurses regarding safe handling of cancer drugs. The post-test was conducted after 7 days of pre-test.

RESULTS

Table 1 shows distribution of level of knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs during pre-test and post-test among staff nurses working in Mahatma Gandhi Medical College. During the pre-test out of 60 samples, 36 (60%) had inadequate knowledge, 22 (36.7%) had moderately adequate knowledge and 2 (3.3%) had adequate knowledge and in the post-test 55 (91.7%) had adequate knowledge and 5 (8.3%) had moderately adequate knowledge.

Table 2 represents the mean, median, standard deviation, mean difference and paired “t” value of the knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs. The table reveals that the mean pre-test knowledge score was 8.62 and the post-test knowledge score was 16.53; it was higher than the pre-test. The standard deviation of the pre-test knowledge score was 2.969 and the post-test knowledge score was 1.443. The obtained paired “t” value was 20.684 and it was highly significant at p < 0.001 level.

It was inferred that the educational program on knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs was highly effective. Hypothesis (H₁) was accepted. Hence, there is a significant difference in pre-test and post-test level of knowledge regarding safe handling of cancer drugs among staff nurses.

CONCLUSION

The main conclusion of the present study shows that the majority of staff nurses had inadequate knowledge during pre-test and post-test regarding the safe handling of cancer drugs. It reveals that the educational program was effective to improve the knowledge level of staff nurses.¹⁸

DECLARATION OF THE STUDY PARTICIPANTS

The author certifies that an appropriate consent forms should be obtained from all study participants. The study subjects understand that their names and initials will not be published and due efforts will make to conceal their identity, but anonymity cannot be guaranteed.

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