Speaking at Hospital Pharmacy Europe’s Virtual Study Day on IV medicines safety in a session sponsored by BD for UK healthcare professionals only, Matthias Hellberg-Naegele offers insights into the shared responsibility of pharmacists and nurses to enhance occupational safety around hazardous drugs. Here, you have exclusive access to the session recording.
Hazardous medicinal products contain one or more substances that meet the criteria for classification as carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic for reproduction and can cause unintended effects in individuals involved in patient care.
According to the European Commission, nurses are by far the largest single occupational group exposed to hazardous medicinal products (40%), followed by technicians (11%) and pharmacists (9%). While pharmacists will largely prepare these drugs in a clean room with full personal protective equipment, the story can be very different for the nurses administering these drugs on wards where such protective measures are uncommon.
Collaboration between pharmacists, nurses and other healthcare workers at various stages of hazardous drug preparation and administration is crucial to minimise the risks and protect the workforce.
Matthias Hellberg-Naegele is an advanced practice nurse at Cantonal Hospital in St Gallen, Switzerland, and a board member of the European Oncology Nursing Society.
In this session sponsored by BD for UK healthcare professionals only, Matthias focuses on the management of hazardous drugs in clinical practice with survey insights from Germany and Switzerland. He discusses the routes of occupational exposure to carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxins; the risks and mitigation strategies required; the importance of closed system transfer devices for enhancing safety; and the synergy required between pharmacists and nurses to advance best practice in hazardous drug management.
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