Safety Management Status among Nurses Handling Anticancer Drugs: Nurse Awareness and Performance Following Safety Regulations

This study identified the actual conditions for safe anticancer drug management among nurses and therelationship between level of awareness and performance of anticancer drug safety regulations in terms ofpreparation, administration, and disposal. The respondents were 236 nurses working with chemotherapy in wardsand outpatient clinics in five hospitals in and near Seoul. Safety regulations provided for the anticancer drugthe Occupational Safety Health Administration (OSHA, 1999), as modified for an earlier study, were used. Theresults showed that the level of awareness and performance on the anticancer drug safety regulations indicatetheir preparation (3.38±0.55, 2.38±0.98), administration (3.52±0.46, 3.17±0.70), general handling and disposal(3.33±0.54, 2.42±0.90) on a scale 0 to 5. Also, there were significant differences in job positions, work experience,type of preparation, and continuing education and a positive relationship between the level of awareness andnursing performance. Thus, nurses should receive continuing education on the handling of anticancer drugs toimprove the level of performance following safety regulations.