THE IMPACT OF A FORMAL EDUCATION PROGRAMME ON NURSES' AWARENESS OF PRECAUTIONS TO TAKE WHEN ADMINISTERING CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC MEDICINES.

Widespread use of chemotherapeutic drugs in the treatment of cancer has lead to higher health hazards among employee who handle and administer such drugs. A study to assess the efficacy of a structured teaching program on knowledge about safety measures relating to the handling of chemotherapeutic drugs among nursing staff. The research approach adopted for this study is an evaluative approach. The research design is quasi-experimental design one group pre test and post test design. The study was conducted at tertiary care hospital. The sample size consist of 36. Non probability purposive sampling technique was used to select the respondents. A structured knowledge questionnaire and are used to assess the knowledge and practices of staff nurses who is handling chemotherapeutic drugs. Result-The pre-test data revealed that, majority of the nursing staff in tertiary care hospital 35 (97.22%) had strongly agreed about safe handling of chemotherapeutic drugs, whereas 1 (2.78%) of the nursing staff in tertiary care hospital had agreed and no one 0 (0%) The mean and S.D of knowledge scores obtained before administering learning package was 5.28 and 1.21 respectively, which was increased after administering Planned teaching program to 8.88 and 1.24 respectively. It shows that the knowledge regarding safe handling of chemotherapeutic drugs was increased after planned teaching program. Conclusion- The study indicated that the organised training programme was an efficient way for imparting sufficient knowledge and assists nursing staffs in enhancing their knowledge [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]