Korean nurses’ adherence to safety guidelines for chemotherapy administration

Purpose: Nurses are at risk from handling chemotherapeutic agents. This study aimed to determine adherence to safety guidelines for chemotherapy administration by Korean nurses and to examine the relationship between the hospital safety climate and nurses' adherence to safety guidelines. Method: A descriptive, correlational design with a cross-sectional survey using data from the Korea Nurses' Health Study. For this study, participants included 872 female nurses who had administered chemotherapeutic agents to patients in the last 30 days. Results: Only a quarter of the participants had high adherence to the safety guidelines, while the majority had moderate to low adherence. The absence of job hindrances and feedback/training – two sub-factors of the hospital safety climate – enhanced the likeliness for nurses to comply with the safety guidelines by almost 1.3 and 1.7 times, respectively. Conclusion: The results imply that the hospital safety climate, particularly feedback/training, and the absence of job hindrances are significantly correlated with adherence to the safety guidelines for chemotherapy administration. Therefore, organisational and policy support is needed to improve the hospital safety climate.