A informação a doentes submetidos a quimioterapia

A globalização das tecnologias de informação e comunicação, o facto de serem mais rápidas, mais dinâmicas e interactivas, permitiram o acesso ao conhecimento quase imediato, vindo influenciar o comportamento e o modo de estar em sociedade. No entanto, também introduziu grande desigualdade social, pois há ainda muitos indivíduos que não conseguem aceder à mais simples informação. O papel do Técnico de Farmácia deverá incidir não somente na perfeita manipulação dos medicamentos citotóxicos, como também preocupar-se sobre o que acontece ao doente após a administração de medicamentos antineoplásicos. Assim, os doentes devem ser informados sobre o seu tratamento, de forma a atingirem o sucesso terapêutico e aminimizar os efeitos colaterais. Na prática pode colocar-se a questão: deveria melhorar–se a informação sobre os medicamentos citotóxicos e o aconselhamento prestado ao doente?

Evaluation of the improvements on pharmacy technicians' work practices after implementation of operational procedures

Several antineoplasic drugs have been demonstrated to be carcinogenic or to have mutagenic and teratogenic effects. The greatest protection is achieved with the implementation of administrative and engineering controls and safety procedures. Objective: to evaluate the improvements on pharmacy technicians' work practices, after the implementation of operational procedures related to individual protection, biologic safety cabinet disinfection and cytotoxic drug preparation. Method: case-study in a hospital pharmacy undergoing a certification process. Six pharmacy technicians were observed during their daily activities. Characterization of the work practices was made using a checklist based on ISOPP and PIC guidelines. The variables studied concerning cleaning/disinfection procedures, personal protective equipment and procedures for preparing cytotoxic drugs. The same work practices were evaluated after four months of operational procedures implementation. Concordance between work practices and guidelines was considered to be a quality indicator (guidelines concordance practices number/total number of practices x 100). Results: improvements were observed after operational procedures implementation. An improvement of 6,25% in personal protective equipment practice was achieved by changing second pair of gloves every thirty minutes. The major progress, 10%, was obtained in disinfection procedure, where 80% of tasks are now realized according to guidelines.By now, we hot an improvement of only 1% at drug preparation procedure by placing one cytotoxic drug at a time inside the biological safety cabinet. Then, 85% of practices are according to guidelines. Conclusion: before operational procedures implementation 80,3% of practices were according to the guidelines, while now is 84,4%. This indicates that is necessary to review the procedures frequently in the benefit to reduce the risks associated with handling cytotoxic drugs and maintenance of drug specifications.

Contributo para a utilização segura de câmaras de segurança biológica na manipulação de medicamentos citotóxicos

Mestrado em Segurança e Higiene do Trabalho.