Congress Abstracts 2003

26

HANDS-ON LEARNING: EDUCATING NEW ONCOLOGY NURSES IN A SKILLS LAB ENVIRONMENT. Michelle Koeppen, RN, MSN, AOCN^®, and Deborah Hay, RN, BSN, OCN^®, The Cancer Institute, Kansas City, MO.

Rationale: The Cancer Institute provides cancer treatment education to the oncology staff of area hospitals within two hospital systems. A one-day didactic program, “Introduction to Chemotherapy,” is offered several times a year. The employees then return to their institutions to complete a hospital certification written exam and complete a skills validation sheet with a mentor on the unit before being allowed to give chemotherapy without supervision. Evaluations from the “Introduction to Chemotherapy” course revealed that many participants found the didactic information to be overwhelming, creating anxiety while they continued the process to administer chemotherapy. The instructors sought to alleviate some of that fear and developed a “skills lab” program to be completed a few weeks after the “Introduction to Chemotherapy” course and before the written exam.

Program: The skills lab contains several components. Four case studies with questions regarding chemotherapy administration, side effects, dosage calculations, and extravasation are used. Participants are given the case studies upon completion of the chemotherapy class, allowing them time to research answers. At the skills lab, each room simulates a client case. Participants circulate through all four rooms receiving hands-on instruction and practice including setting up an infusion pump/system for chemo administration, reviewing assessment/administration skills, accessing a port-a-cath, and having an opportunity to administer a mock vesicant through a peripheral IV. One case discusses a patient with lymphedema and our lymphedema rehabilitation program. An additional station demonstrates how to use a chemotherapy spill kit. Participants are also encouraged to take their certification written exam at the lab.

Conclusion: Skills lab evaluations are full of positive comments from participants. In response to what was most helpful, most responded, “seeing administration demonstrations and discussing the case studies in a relaxed, learning environment.” The percent of nurses who successfully complete the written exam at the first sitting has also increased. With the addition of a skills lab into our education process for chemotherapy administration, we have decreased anxiety of the nurses while increasing their learning through hands-on opportunities.