Promoting Adherence to Chemotherapy Handling Guidelines Among Oncology Nurses

Chemotherapy exposure is a serious occupational hazard affecting oncology nurses. Oncology nurses' adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines is essential to prevent their exposure to chemotherapy. The goal of this research is to develop, validate, and pilot test an intervention "Workplace program to Improve Safe Handling of hazardous drugs" (WISH), to promote adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses. The WISH intervention includes two components: an educational component and debriefing sessions on chemotherapy exposure incidents. First, the research team will use a mixed-methods approach to develop an online educational component on chemotherapy safety, establish the content validity of the educational content based on experts' evaluation, and establish the face validity of the educational content by conducting three qualitative focus group with oncology nurses (n=4-6 nurses per group) or individual interviews. Next, the research team will test the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention using a pilot randomized controlled trial with two groups of oncology nurses, an intervention group (n= 30) and a control group (n=30). We will obtain quantitative and qualitative measures of the intervention feasibility and acceptability. The output is an intervention program targeted to train nurses on safe chemotherapy handling guidelines. Findings will be disseminated through peer-reviewed publications and presentations. The intermediate outcome is the adoption of the intervention program by healthcare institutions to train nurses on chemotherapy handling guidelines. The end outcome is promoting adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses.