Developing a standardised pre-SACT safety checklist for nurses on a haematology unit
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Developing a standardised pre-SACT safety checklist for nurses on a haematology unit

Danielle Casey Haematology and bone marrow transplant nurse educator, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, England
Joanne Conway Clinical nurse educator, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, England
Elaine Tomlins Chemotherapy nurse consultant, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To improve your knowledge of systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) and its administration

  • To increase your awareness of the need for thorough systematic safety checks before SACT administration

  • To read about a project at a haematology unit designed to help nurses conduct pre-SACT safety checks

Systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) is a high-risk procedure with the potential for medication errors at every stage, from prescribing and dispensing to administration. Pre-administration checks carried out by nurses are the last opportunity to detect any discrepancies or potential errors before the patient receives their planned treatment. It is therefore crucial that nurses use a consistent, comprehensive and systematic method of conducing pre-SACT administration checks. In 2020-21, the practice education team on the haematology unit at a specialist cancer hospital in London developed, trialled and evaluated a pre-SACT administration checklist. The checklist has provided nurses with a consistent and systematic order of checks to follow before SACT administration and practice educators with a tool for training nurses and assessing their competence in administering SACT.

Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2023.e1840

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@Danielle__casey

Correspondence

danielle.casey@rmh.nhs.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Casey D, Conway J, Tomlins E (2023) Developing a standardised pre-SACT safety checklist for nurses on a haematology unit. Cancer Nursing Practice. doi: 10.7748/cnp.2023.e1840

Published online: 02 May 2023

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