Who can give Rituxan

[furrykidmom]

I am a hemodialysis nurse in a major city hospital. We do acute in house patients and the occasional patient that is at the hospital for a procedure etc.

My question is that we have a dialysis patient who is going to come in for dialysis and to receive their Rituxan infusion while on dialysis thru their dialysis catheter. None of us are chemo certified, is this a medication that you have to be chemo certified to give?

[jemb]

Rituxan is not chemo, so you do not have to be chemo certified to give it. It is a monoclonal antibody.

Hopefully you have well spelled out guidelines for giving this while the patient is in for dialysis. It has to be given slowly at first, titrating the dose as the patient tolerates it. If the patient has a high tumor burden, they can experience skyrocketing temps and severe rigors from tumor lysis. BP can also bottom out very rapidly. PM me if you need general guidelines that you can then adapt to your setting.