oral chemo

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What sort of precautions do nurses need to follow with a patient on oral chemo? Do you need to wear gloves when handling the pills? Is accidental contact with their urine just as dangerous as with IV chemo?

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I don't know if you have access to ONS guidelines but that would be the reference to refer to. In a clinical setting I wouldn't be "handling" the pills anyway because they would be transferred from the container into the pill cup. However, I believe the oral chemo drugs are metabolized in the body into the active chemo agent. Excreta would be handled just as with IV chemo. i.e. flushing the toilet x2 after use, using gloves to handle vomit or linens contaminated with vomit and washing them separately. You can check the 1/2 life of the drugs, but I believe the chemo is eliminated from the body fairly quickly,24-48 hrs.

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Specializes in Hematology/Oncology.

The only oral chemo we use is Busulfan. Even though we just take it from the container and pour it into a med cup, we still wear our purple chemo gloves per protocol. Not sure if it's an ONS one or a CCF one.

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Check the half life of your drugs. Some chemo metabolites can remain in the faeces for up to seven days. Where I worked, handling precautions were recommended for up to five days.

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Plz can any body list the all drugs for chemo oral >.

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