Promoting Adherence to Chemotherapy Handling Guidelines Among Oncology Nurses

NIH RePORTER · ALLCDC · K01 · $106,792 · view on reporter.nih.gov ↗

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Chemotherapy exposure is a serious occupational hazard affecting oncology nurses. It could lead to infertility, fetal anomalies, and cancer. Chemotherapy exposure occurs by the direct contact with chemotherapy drugs through dermal absorption, inhalation, ingestion, or injection. Oncology nurses’ adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines is essential to prevent their exposure to chemotherapy. Unfortunately, oncology nurses’ adherence to these guidelines is suboptimal. The goal of the research in this application is to develop, validate, and pilot test a novel “Workplace program to Improve Safe Handling of hazardous drugs” (WISH) intervention to promote adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses. The WISH intervention includes two components: 1) an educational component and 2) debriefing sessions on chemotherapy exposure incidents. The first specific aim in this research is to develop and validate the WISH intervention using a mixed- method approach. In this aim, Dr. Abu-Alhaija and her research team will: 1) develop an online educational component on chemotherapy safety, 2) establish the content validity of the educational content based on experts’ evaluation, and 3) establish the face validity of the educational component and determine other intervention features (frequency, duration) by conducting 3 focus groups with oncology nurses (n=4-6 nurses per group). The second aim is to test the feasibility and acceptability of the WISH intervention using a pilot randomized controlled trial with two groups of oncology nurses; an intervention group (n= 30) and a control group (n=30). This research will use The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) r2p approach by involving nurses in developing the intervention and planning the study activities in a way that fits nurses’ work schedules and preferences. The immediate output from this research is an intervention that can be implemented by healthcare institutions to increase nurses’ adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines. The short-term outcome is promoting the adherence to chemotherapy handling guidelines among oncology nurses. The long-term outcome is improving the health and wellbeing for nurses and healthcare workers. This research meets the current NIOSH priority strategic goal for research focuses on reducing occupational cancer, cardiovascular disease, adverse reproductive outcomes, and other chronic diseases, and the intermediate goal 1.3E: adherence to safe handling of hazardous drug guidance aimed at preventing reproductive problems resulting from the inadequate adherence to safe handling guidelines. Additionally, this study is very relevant to National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) for Healthcare and Social Assistance sector, in which preventing occupational exposure to hazardous substances was identified as a research priority. Plus, this research is pertinent to the Cancer, Reproductive, Cardiovascular, an...

Key facts

NIH application ID
10784024
Project number
1K01OH012671-01
Recipient
UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI
Principal Investigator
Dania Abu-Alhaija
Activity code
K01
Funding institute
ALLCDC
Fiscal year
2024
Award amount
$106,792
Award type
1
Project period
2024-09-01 → 2027-08-31