chemotherapy

[veronica butterfly, ADN, RN]

Do any of you administer chemotherapy on your general med/surg floor? My hospital is hoping to certify some of us so that we can start giving chemo. But from what very little I've learned so far, it seems like it won't be safe to do in such a crazy environment.

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

I really do not think this is a good idea for a variety of reasons,

1. These patients tend to be immunocomprimised and should not be too near to medical patients with infections,MRSA and other infections that increase their risk any further.

2.These patients also need to be in private rooms for the time frame in which chemo precautions are in effect. I think is is 72 hours.

3. Chemo waste must be handled per cytotoxic drug guidelines

4. Big mistakes can happen that were not anticipated by having some nurses working med-surg and some working as oncology nurses. Our hospital should have not been suprised when to save $ they temporarily combined these types of units. Someone gave the chemo to a medical patient instead of to the oncology patient

Anything is possible and I image it could work if divided properly but I think it is a bad idea

[*ac*]

It is done on my general pediatric floor by certified nurses. Any nurse can take these pts when they are not actually getting chemo. It's not supposed to work this way, but you could have a MRSA pt and a pt who got chemo yesterday.

[veronica butterfly, ADN, RN]

Thanks for your replies. I think it can be done but everybody has to be really sharp and on the ball, which IS difficult on med/surg. We have so many new grads (I was 2 years ago), and it takes you awhile until you can notice all the details that need to be done properly... All the MRSA and C-diff does worry me, cancer pts really need a room at the end of hall, etc. Unbelievably, all our rooms are private rooms, but the floor still feel chaotic and it would be nice to have a quieter environment for these patients.