Knowledge, attitude, and practice of oncology nurses of East Azerbaijan hospitals about handling antineoplastic drugs

Antinoplastic drugs are used to treat cancers and nurses are exposed to these drugs during their working hours. These drugs can cause many health problems in nurses. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and practice of oncology nurses in hospitals of East Azerbaijan province about handling antineoplastic drugs.

The present study was a descriptive cross-sectional study that carried out with the participation of 129 nurses of oncology wards in East Azerbaijan province in 2019. A standard knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) questionnaire with 33 questions and Likert scale was used for data collection by census sampling. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Kruskal Wallis test using SPSS software.

The mean age and chemotherapy work experience of nurses were 33.8±6.7 and 5.91±5.5 years, respectively. All nurses handled at least 3 medications in their work shift. The mean score for knowledge, attitude, and practice were 58±4.46 (out of 65), 30.76±3.98 (out of 40), and 47.41±5.79 (out of 60), respectively. Nurses over 40 years of age and with work experience higher than 5 years significantly gained higher knowledge, attitude, and practice scores (P-Value<0.05).

The workload reported by nurses may be a possible cause of the reported health symptoms. Increasing nurseschr('39') awareness in the areas of handling, accident management, and waste disposal of drugs could increase their knowledge and improve their attitude and practice. Training the nurses with less work experience should be prioritized by safety management of hospitals.