Occupational health and safety of personnel handling chemotherapeutic agents in Greek hospitals

Abstract

The expansion of chemotherapy raised concerns about the health and safety of hospital personnel. Very little is known about the conditions of handling of chemotherapeutic agents by healthcare workers in Greece and possible adverse effects related to their safety practices, as well as the safety policies adopted by the Greek hospitals. A self-evaluation questionnaire was completed by 353 healthcare workers involved with the use of chemotherapeutic drugs in 24 Greek hospitals and the answers were statistically analysed. The majority of the healthcare workers are aware of the dangers of their work, although they had received limited training and medical surveillance. A significant percentage of them does not use personal protective equipment or use it inadequately. The safety design of their workplace is rather poor. Different health problems have been experienced, deriving from the respiratory, central nervous system, reproductive, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal system. The improvement of safety training and procedures as well as medical surveillance seems to be a vital priority of hospital administration in Greece, in order to comply with the European guidelines and for the prevention of occupational diseases and environmental pollution.

Safe Handling of Anti-Neoplastic Drugs in the University Hospitals: A Descriptive Survey Study Among Oncology Nurses

“…Most of the nurses were aware of the needs for continuous education and positive effects of education. These results are in accordance with Constantinidis's findings that reported a poor potential for ongoing education (22). Therefore, there is a desperately need for designing an ongoing training program by expert pharmacists in order to enhance and update nurses' knowledge in handling of ANPDs.…”

“…Training in various subjects showed different effects on nurses' knowledge scores. Constantindis et al reported that a significant percentage of respondents had no relevant information and only 29.6% of health care workers had received training for preparation and reconstruction of chemotherapeutical agents (22).…”

“…Studies in Greek also showed that only half of the nurses received formal information not provided by the hospital. Others improved their information by colleagues, medical doctors, and chemotherapeutic drug reconstruction unit (22).…”

“…A study in Greek hospital demonstrated that 78% to 80% of the health care workers were aware of hazardous effects of cytotoxic drugs. Leaflets, books, and seminars were the sources of information in half of the nurses (22).…”

Perceptions of health workers regarding the occupational health services rendered at Onandjokwe hospital, Namibia

“…Therefore, the majority of the health workers did not have access to it. This revelation is in contrary to the suggestions by Work Safe Victoria [25] which indicates that policy procedures should be available, communicated to and understood by all employees as an important part of implementation of Occupational Health Services. However, training and education on risk mitigation in OHS, a safe working environment and equity in the workplace were provided in some of the departments.…”