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Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers

INTRODUCTION: Health care professionals are part of a group that is more exposed to a wide range of sources of risk that are very harmful to their own health. Antineoplastic drugs are widely used to treat many different types of cancer and are very aggressive to both patients and health care profess...

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Autores principales: Rocha, Stephanie Damasceno, Gomes, Andre Nascimento Honorato, Zen, Paulo Ricardo Gazzola, Bica, Claudia Giuliano
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Associação Nacional de Medicina do Trabalho (ANAMT) 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7934168/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33688322
http://dx.doi.org/10.47626/1679-4435-2020-527
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author Rocha, Stephanie Damasceno
Gomes, Andre Nascimento Honorato
Zen, Paulo Ricardo Gazzola
Bica, Claudia Giuliano
author_facet Rocha, Stephanie Damasceno
Gomes, Andre Nascimento Honorato
Zen, Paulo Ricardo Gazzola
Bica, Claudia Giuliano
author_sort Rocha, Stephanie Damasceno
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Health care professionals are part of a group that is more exposed to a wide range of sources of risk that are very harmful to their own health. Antineoplastic drugs are widely used to treat many different types of cancer and are very aggressive to both patients and health care professionals. OBJECTIVES: To identify occupational risks and assess knowledge in health care professionals from Porto Alegre whose work involves handling antineoplastic drugs. METHODS: This was a prospective, descriptive, and cross-sectional study with qualitative and quantitative analyses. It was conducted in two stages. A questionnaire containing objective questions was administered in stage one. In stage two, observations were made during regular visits to the sites studied at different times, following a checklist based on the requirements of health regulation standards relating to handling of antineoplastic drugs. RESULTS: A total of 40 health care professionals took part in the study, 11 nurses, 14 pharmacists, and 15 nursing and/or pharmacy technicians. Twenty-seven of them had been involved in some type of accident during their professional practice. It was also observed that the institutions were making efforts to comply with legal requirements, since 32 reported that they took part in the Program for Medical Control of Occupational Health and 29 of the employees stated they had had some type of training in the antineoplastic area. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to antineoplastic drugs through contact, aerosols, ingestion, and inhalation was detected. Additionally, ergonomic, physical, and biological risks were also present, since working with different pathological organisms and working processes impacts on these workers’ health. Assessment of the health care professionals’ knowledge identified a lack of knowledge and weaknesses with relation to handling this class of drugs.
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spelling pubmed-79341682021-03-08 Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers Rocha, Stephanie Damasceno Gomes, Andre Nascimento Honorato Zen, Paulo Ricardo Gazzola Bica, Claudia Giuliano Rev Bras Med Trab Original Article INTRODUCTION: Health care professionals are part of a group that is more exposed to a wide range of sources of risk that are very harmful to their own health. Antineoplastic drugs are widely used to treat many different types of cancer and are very aggressive to both patients and health care professionals. OBJECTIVES: To identify occupational risks and assess knowledge in health care professionals from Porto Alegre whose work involves handling antineoplastic drugs. METHODS: This was a prospective, descriptive, and cross-sectional study with qualitative and quantitative analyses. It was conducted in two stages. A questionnaire containing objective questions was administered in stage one. In stage two, observations were made during regular visits to the sites studied at different times, following a checklist based on the requirements of health regulation standards relating to handling of antineoplastic drugs. RESULTS: A total of 40 health care professionals took part in the study, 11 nurses, 14 pharmacists, and 15 nursing and/or pharmacy technicians. Twenty-seven of them had been involved in some type of accident during their professional practice. It was also observed that the institutions were making efforts to comply with legal requirements, since 32 reported that they took part in the Program for Medical Control of Occupational Health and 29 of the employees stated they had had some type of training in the antineoplastic area. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to antineoplastic drugs through contact, aerosols, ingestion, and inhalation was detected. Additionally, ergonomic, physical, and biological risks were also present, since working with different pathological organisms and working processes impacts on these workers’ health. Assessment of the health care professionals’ knowledge identified a lack of knowledge and weaknesses with relation to handling this class of drugs. Associação Nacional de Medicina do Trabalho (ANAMT) 2021-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC7934168/ /pubmed/33688322 http://dx.doi.org/10.47626/1679-4435-2020-527 Text en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Original Article
Rocha, Stephanie Damasceno
Gomes, Andre Nascimento Honorato
Zen, Paulo Ricardo Gazzola
Bica, Claudia Giuliano
Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
title Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
title_full Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
title_fullStr Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
title_full_unstemmed Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
title_short Handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
title_sort handling of antineoplastic drugs: a health concern among health care workers
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7934168/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33688322
http://dx.doi.org/10.47626/1679-4435-2020-527
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