Currently about 30-50% of the chemotherapy and biotherapy drugs being developed are for oral use. Oral chemotherapy or oral anticancer (OAC) medications are part of the cancer regimen for many patients that reside in rural areas. Oral chemotherapy and biotherapy agents benefit patients due to the ease and simplicity of administration.
The review of literature on oral anticancer medications and the term oral chemotherapy focus primarily on patient adherence, the use of telehealth communications in the education, monitoring, and compliance of patients but no evidence was discovered addressing rural and non-oncology nurse encounters with this patient population. This gap is seen by the lack of literature found about the rural nurses’ oral anticancer medication experiences and needs further exploration to ensure patient safety and positive patient outcomes. There was no literature found on the OAC education or practice issues regarding the rural nurses.
As oral anticancer medication use increases it is being seen more frequently in the rural population. The negative concern is the absolute necessity for maintaining therapeutic drug levels and the potential for life threatening immune-related adverse events (irAGs). Therapeutic interventions will be negated if irAGs are not recognized. OAC regimens can be complicated and stringent for the patient and missing doses can lower the therapeutic response and cause further disease progression. Therapeutic levels will also be affected negatively if drug dosages and schedules are not maintained, as is often the case for hospitalization with unrelated non-oncology admissions in this patient population. The purpose of this research assesses the knowledge level about oral anticancer medications and the need for oral anticancer education in the mostly non-oncology nursing staff of rural hospital settings who do not routinely work with oncology patients.
The research design is a quantitative study using a questionnaire to identify nurses’ familiarity with oral chemotherapy medications, timeliness, adverse reactions, safe handling, and drug-to-drug interactions. The results once disseminated to the rural hospitals’ nurse educators, managers and staff will aid in quality improvement and identifying gaps to be able to provide needed policies or protocols concerning oral chemotherapy drug practices. It is expected that the findings reveal nurse sensitive indicators that create positive patient safety outcomes.