Educational materials for transplant patients are often too complex for patients to fully comprehend. That’s why oncology nurses at Cedars- Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, decided to produce 2 patient-friendly books that have gotten rave reviews from cancer patients and the whole oncology team.
With the growing number of cancer survivors, survivorship planning is getting a lot of attention. An important aspect of cancer survivorship is the effects on nurses, who become “secondary survivors,” of the toll cancer takes on patients and families. As such, nurses need to be aware of the possibility of “compassion fatigue.” Read More ›
A recent study, published in August 2011 by Friese and colleagues, correlates the incidence of accidental chemotherapy exposure in outpatient infusion centers to several factors.1 Appearing first online in BMJ Quality and Safety, the article discusses staffing and resource availability, as well as adherence to safety practice standards and their contribution to higher chemotherapy exposure event reporting. In summary, when the nurses sampled reported adequate staffing and resource availability, the reported incidence of accidental exposure to chemotherapy was lower. Read More ›
Almost 1 of 5 oncology nurses is unintentionally exposed to chemotherapy agents, according to an article published online August 16 in BMJ (British Medical Journal) Quality & Safety.
Many oncology nurses may be wearing uniforms that contain harmful bacteria, including drug-resistant organisms. A new study has found that more than 60% of hospital staff’s uniforms are colonized with potentially pathogenic bacteria. The study, which was published in the September issue of the American Journal of Infection Control (Wiener-Well Y, et al. 2011;39:555-559), suggests that physicians and nurses may be transferring pathogens that could cause clinically relevant infection.
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