Auto­mo­tive seat­belts became manda­tory in the 1960s as a method to reduce fatal­i­ties. How­ever, by them­selves, belts were not com­pletely effec­tive, so airbags were later devel­oped. For haz­ardous drugs, despite the use of ver­ti­cal flow bio­logic safety cab­i­nets for drug prepa­ra­tion and per­sonal pro­tec­tive equip­ment for admin­is­tra­tion, work­place con­t­a­m­i­na­tion con­tin­ues to be a sig­nif­i­cant prob­lem. This real­iza­tion has lead to the devel­op­ment of closed-​​system trans­fer devices.

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A num­ber of stud­ies have demon­strated an over­all decrease in skin organ­isms and infec­tion rates with alcohol-​​based hand san­i­tiz­ers com­pared to soap and water (Alle­granzi & Pit­tet, 2009), yet com­pli­ance remains a prob­lem for health­care providers. Alcohol-​​based hand san­i­tiz­ers have been doc­u­mented to cause a vari­ety of skin mal­adies, most notably hand der­mati­tis. Signs and symp­toms include red­ness, exco­ri­a­tion, pain, burn­ing, itch­ing, and skin tightness.

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For oncol­ogy nurses, charges of neg­li­gence and mal­prac­tice can arise in sit­u­a­tions rang­ing from a poorly man­aged vesi­cant extrava­sa­tion to pro­vid­ing inap­pro­pri­ate infor­ma­tion dur­ing tele­phone triage. In addi­tion to loss of life, neg­li­gence and mal­prac­tice can result in debil­i­tat­ing phys­i­cal harm and psy­cho­log­i­cal trauma. Other neg­a­tive con­se­quences of mal­prac­tice include sus­pen­sion or ter­mi­na­tion, irrepara­ble dam­age to pro­fes­sional rep­u­ta­tion (with inabil­ity to get hired), and crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion. Here’s how to pro­tect your­self from malpractice.

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