An experimental study to assess the effect of self instructional module on knowledge and practices regarding handling of cytotoxic drugs among the staff nurses working in the pediatric units of selected hospitals in pune city

Introduction: Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. Many treatment options exist for cancer and treatment with chemotherapy started in early 20 century. It involves one or more cytotoxic drugs. Nurses are the main groups that are exposed to these drugs in hospital setting. Hence an experimental study to assess the effect of self instructional module on Knowledge and Practices regarding handling of cytotoxic drugs among the staff nurses working in the Pediatric units of selected hospitals in Pune city was undertaken. The objectives of the study were to assess the Knowledge and Practices of the staff nurses regarding handling of cytotoxic drugs before and after the administration of self instructional module, to determine the effectiveness of Self Instructional Module on Knowledge and Practices among the staff nurses, to correlate the Knowledge and Practices of staff nurses and to find out the association between pre Knowledge and Practice scores with selected demographic variables. Material and methods: A pre experimental one group pre test post test design was used and carried out on 60 samples. The Non probability purposive sampling technique was used. Demographic Performa, structured questionnaire and observation checklist was used to collect the data. Results: The mean knowledge score was significantly increased from 14.3 to 17.4 (p value = 0.000) and the mean practice score was improved from 15.0 to 17.1 (p-value = 0.000) with significant positive correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.6, t value= 6.2, p value = 0.000) depicting significant change in the knowledge and practice of the staff nurses after the administration of the self instructional module. Conclusion: The researcher is optimistic that the study has exposed some directions for further research that will influence a greater appreciation and awareness for safe handling awareness and practices among the staff nurses handling cytotoxic drugs.