Changes in treatment over the years?

OCNRN63, RN · Oct 14, 2013

Hello,
I need to do an EBP report for school and I'd like to have an oncology topic as we're doing oncology currently. The problem is that I don't know how things have changed with nursing practice regarding chemo and nursing care over the years.
Can anyone give me some examples of things that have changed over the years? Do we administer chemo differently? Take different precautions?
Thanks in advance!

I googled your question and came up with several hits.

wantccu · Oct 15, 2013

I'm capable of using google, thank you. I was just hoping to hear from people in the field who have been for awhile what their personal experiences as a nurse in practice have been. Sorry to bother you.

shelbs3, BSN, RN · Oct 20, 2013

I'v only worked for about a year but this is a frequent topic of conversation on our unit. I work peds heme onc and one of the nurses who has been there for about 20 years said one of the biggest changes she has seen was the use of zofran. She said before they started using this drug they pretty much snowed the kids with benadryl and ativan during chemo to combat nausea and that they didnt even have a playroom on the heme onc floor because they really didn't need it because the kiddos just slept. Now most of them are busy busy!

Also the nurses use to mix the chemo on the floor and it is now mixed in pharmacy. They also use to hang it without chemo gloves or gowns and without a phaseal system (protects chemo from dripping on us basically).

wantccu · Oct 20, 2013

Thank you! ^^. I already wrote my paper but that's exactly the type of response I was looking for. Pediatric oncology has to be heartbreaking .