Enhancing Chemotherapy Safety: Impact of Simulation on Staff Nurses' Knowledge and Clinical Skills – A Time Series Approach

Background Good knowledge and positive skilled clinical competency are the major weapons for nurses to handle chemotherapy agents, which can assist in raising the level of practice and thus have an impact on the nurses’ quality of life and better patient care. Materials and methods An experimental time series study was conducted with 30 samples selected by using cluster sampling to assess the effectiveness of simulation on knowledge and clinical competency regarding safe handling of chemotherapy drugs among staff nurses working in selected Hospitals at Mangaluru, India. Result The result showed that the majority 46.7% of samples were aged between 21 and 25 years and 30.0% were aged 26–30 years. The level of knowledge in pre-test, 56.7% samples had average, and 43.3% had moderate, in post-test-I, 93.3% had moderate, and 6.7% had good, whereas in post-test II, 50.0% had moderate, and 50.0% had good knowledge. The level of clinical competency in pre-test, 60% samples were at the competent level and 40% were at the advance beginner level, in post-test 83.3% were at the competent level, and 16.7% were at the expert level and post-test II, 73.3% were at expert level. The effect of simulation training showed significant differences in the knowledge and clinical competency mean scores of pre-test, post-test I, and post-test II. Thus, the p-value of 0.0001 showed that simulation was highly effective in enhancing the knowledge and clinical competency. Conclusion The simulation training enhances knowledge, professional growth, and clinical competence regarding safe handling of chemotherapy drugs among nurses.