Hello! Nice poster on PPE for working with chemotherapy. It is definitely something that needs more attention. I spent 10 years as a bedside ICU nurse and never really had any formal training giving any chemo agents. We would occasionally get told to wear the ‘black’ gloves and PPE but nothing formal. I feel like there is a need for more education on safe handling of chemo agents and PPE as there are more pumped into the market for routine prescription it seems like these days.
I agree! I administer chemo everyday and I am always up for education on it. It changes constantly and there are so many changes. I think all nurses need constant education on PPE.
Crystal, What an usual and important topic! It amazes me that people are still not utilizing PPE when they know they should be. To see that only 47% are wearing the gowns, and the number goes down, is mind blowing! Nicely done!
My mind was blown too when I read this study. I did not realize the numbers would be so low. And there are so many excuses out there that nurses use. Gowns are just as important as double gloving! Thank you for your comment!
This is a very important topic. Sometimes I have patients on oral chemotherapy medicine and we were given a training on how to safely handle the medications before administration and how to safely dispose the medication packages. Your poster is very educative and you did a good job of explaining the implications of the topic for nursing.
Thank you! I tried to explain the implications for nursing. It is very important to properly handle these drugs. I have patients ask me sometimes why do I wear all the protective gear when I am putting the poison in their body? I explain to them that nobody wants the “poison” if it isn’t necessary that they take it. They usually understand that answer pretty well. It was a struggle at first for me because I felt bad for the patients knowing I was so protected and the medication was going inside their body but they have to take it to live and I have to protect myself.
This is such an important topic especially for chemotherapy administration. We have an issue on the floor for PPE in general such as: contact, contact droplet, airborne, and cytotoxic/hazardous drugs. There is a policy in place cytotoxic/hazardous drugs precautions on our unit. I personally looked it up one night as I was working because I felt like there was not a clear understanding about it throughout the unit. After reading the policy and understand the importance of the precaution’s I printed out the protocol to review over huddle. It was amazing to see how many people did not follow the appropriate protocol for there own protection. Cytotoxic drugs do not only just harm your skin but if you come in contact with a drug that your body doesn’t need you can also experience NADIR just as the patient who needs the chemotherapy. This is scary, you body absorbs those chemicals. Very important topic. Great job on the poster. Photos were helpful for understanding. Have you shown this information to you current facility to make change? Or is it not a problem in your facility? What is your current facilities protocol on PPE for chemo administration?
Currently we do follow these protocols. We wear gowns and double glove. We have goggles to wear in case of a spill. I have not shown this to my facility but I am going to. We wear the gowns to hang the chemotherapy but we do not always wear it when we are disconnecting the chemo because the line is flushed with saline before disconnecting and we use a closed system so that is extra protection. But according to these studies they should be worn during disconnection too so I am going to see about changing our policy so we do that too. Thank you for your comment!
Crystal, This poster provides a great reminder to follow established protocols for PPE and chemo medications to protect the health and well being of nurses. It is surprising that the skin can turn red with just a brief exposure. I have not given chemo but can appreciate doing the right thing every time. Nice presentation.
I know first hand that the skin turns red. We had a spill not too long ago. A patient was coming out of the bathroom in the hallway and I was coming down the hallway. She had her IV in her hand because she pulled it out. She handed it to me and out of instinct I reached for it. The pump was still going. So I had Taxol running out on my hand. I immediately stopped the pump but some did get on me. What was crazy was how red my neck got from just inhaling it for a few minutes. My hand started itching but it was my neck that turned red. Pretty scary stuff. Very important to protect ourselves. Thanks for y our comment!
Wow! What an experience. How scary. It’s odd that a medication can be so toxic and yet is a treatment for cancer. I am glad you are okay after that incident.
What a great Title!!! Safety for Nurses is extremely important. Working in Maternal Child Health my entire career, I had no idea that PPE needed to be worn during the administration of chemo drugs. Looking back on my career, nurses would pour formaldehyde into placenta buckets without any protection. Eventually it was banned from the unit, but safety among thousands of nurses was impacted.
It seems we don’t think about our own safety a lot of the times. Today, I talked to the employee health nurse at our hospital about some more things we can do to make administering chemotherapy safer. I think it’s very important!
Great job on your poster. This seems like it would be great information for a chemo unit. I personally have never worked with it so this was great information and a great teaching tool at least for a start. The title threw me off at first because I was thinking “safety” as in from harm but after reading it, it completely makes sense. It is easy to read and the pictures are just enough to assist with explanation. Great job.
Thank you so much! I was trying to come up with a title that would catch your attention and make people want to read it. Glad that worked lol. Thank you for your comments!
Hello! Nice poster on PPE for working with chemotherapy. It is definitely something that needs more attention. I spent 10 years as a bedside ICU nurse and never really had any formal training giving any chemo agents. We would occasionally get told to wear the ‘black’ gloves and PPE but nothing formal. I feel like there is a need for more education on safe handling of chemo agents and PPE as there are more pumped into the market for routine prescription it seems like these days.
I agree! I administer chemo everyday and I am always up for education on it. It changes constantly and there are so many changes. I think all nurses need constant education on PPE.
Crystal, What an usual and important topic! It amazes me that people are still not utilizing PPE when they know they should be. To see that only 47% are wearing the gowns, and the number goes down, is mind blowing! Nicely done!
My mind was blown too when I read this study. I did not realize the numbers would be so low. And there are so many excuses out there that nurses use. Gowns are just as important as double gloving! Thank you for your comment!
This is a very important topic. Sometimes I have patients on oral chemotherapy medicine and we were given a training on how to safely handle the medications before administration and how to safely dispose the medication packages. Your poster is very educative and you did a good job of explaining the implications of the topic for nursing.
Thank you! I tried to explain the implications for nursing. It is very important to properly handle these drugs. I have patients ask me sometimes why do I wear all the protective gear when I am putting the poison in their body? I explain to them that nobody wants the “poison” if it isn’t necessary that they take it. They usually understand that answer pretty well. It was a struggle at first for me because I felt bad for the patients knowing I was so protected and the medication was going inside their body but they have to take it to live and I have to protect myself.
Crystal,
This is such an important topic especially for chemotherapy administration. We have an issue on the floor for PPE in general such as: contact, contact droplet, airborne, and cytotoxic/hazardous drugs. There is a policy in place cytotoxic/hazardous drugs precautions on our unit. I personally looked it up one night as I was working because I felt like there was not a clear understanding about it throughout the unit. After reading the policy and understand the importance of the precaution’s I printed out the protocol to review over huddle. It was amazing to see how many people did not follow the appropriate protocol for there own protection. Cytotoxic drugs do not only just harm your skin but if you come in contact with a drug that your body doesn’t need you can also experience NADIR just as the patient who needs the chemotherapy. This is scary, you body absorbs those chemicals. Very important topic. Great job on the poster. Photos were helpful for understanding. Have you shown this information to you current facility to make change? Or is it not a problem in your facility? What is your current facilities protocol on PPE for chemo administration?
Currently we do follow these protocols. We wear gowns and double glove. We have goggles to wear in case of a spill. I have not shown this to my facility but I am going to. We wear the gowns to hang the chemotherapy but we do not always wear it when we are disconnecting the chemo because the line is flushed with saline before disconnecting and we use a closed system so that is extra protection. But according to these studies they should be worn during disconnection too so I am going to see about changing our policy so we do that too. Thank you for your comment!
Crystal, This poster provides a great reminder to follow established protocols for PPE and chemo medications to protect the health and well being of nurses. It is surprising that the skin can turn red with just a brief exposure. I have not given chemo but can appreciate doing the right thing every time. Nice presentation.
I know first hand that the skin turns red. We had a spill not too long ago. A patient was coming out of the bathroom in the hallway and I was coming down the hallway. She had her IV in her hand because she pulled it out. She handed it to me and out of instinct I reached for it. The pump was still going. So I had Taxol running out on my hand. I immediately stopped the pump but some did get on me. What was crazy was how red my neck got from just inhaling it for a few minutes. My hand started itching but it was my neck that turned red. Pretty scary stuff. Very important to protect ourselves. Thanks for y our comment!
Wow! What an experience. How scary. It’s odd that a medication can be so toxic and yet is a treatment for cancer. I am glad you are okay after that incident.
Thank you!!
What a great Title!!! Safety for Nurses is extremely important. Working in Maternal Child Health my entire career, I had no idea that PPE needed to be worn during the administration of chemo drugs. Looking back on my career, nurses would pour formaldehyde into placenta buckets without any protection. Eventually it was banned from the unit, but safety among thousands of nurses was impacted.
It seems we don’t think about our own safety a lot of the times. Today, I talked to the employee health nurse at our hospital about some more things we can do to make administering chemotherapy safer. I think it’s very important!
Great job on your poster. This seems like it would be great information for a chemo unit. I personally have never worked with it so this was great information and a great teaching tool at least for a start. The title threw me off at first because I was thinking “safety” as in from harm but after reading it, it completely makes sense. It is easy to read and the pictures are just enough to assist with explanation. Great job.
Thank you so much! I was trying to come up with a title that would catch your attention and make people want to read it. Glad that worked lol. Thank you for your comments!