Risks to health professionals from hazardous drugs in Iran
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Date
2014-05-09
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Abstract
Ongoing concerns exist regarding the dangers
inherent when handling cytotoxics, particularly drugs which are in parenteral formulations. On occasions, nurses and medical doctors have been preparing and administrating these drugs in the open spaces of wards in the absence of suitable personal protective equipment (PPE) and safety cabinets. To explore further into the
severity of occupational hazards, we conducted our research in order to evaluate the healthcare’s understanding of occupational exposure to cytotoxics and occurrence of any side effects. A cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire was distributed amongst oncology nurses in nine specialized cancer
centers in Tehran. The questionnaire was
based on most reputable international guidelines, aiming to evaluate the attitude, knowledge and safe practices of nurses' handling cytotoxic drugs. The gathered data and reported side effects were compared between “oncology/hematology” and “non-oncology” participants. The majority of nurses from oncology wards were aware of the potential hazards associated with handling of chemotherapy and reported high levels of compliance with the use of PPE during reconstitution of antineoplastic agents. Almost all nurses reported the use of a safety cabinet during preparation, however only 55 % reported that they have annual medical check-ups and 45 % reported having received specialized training. This work was also to evaluate the experimental procedures as well as cleaning solutions used to reduce the level exposure. While the level of knowledge about antineoplastic agents is
high among nurses, along with the level of PPE use, medical surveillance and employee training seems to be lagging behind.
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Keywords
Cytotoxic drugs, surface sampling, cleaning solutions, contamination, occupational exposure, questionnaire