ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the requirements for new nurses to obtain employment in highly specialized areas, (e.g. ambulatory oncology infusion). The global healthcare system has experienced higher levels of turnover in experienced nurses.1 The increased need for nurses has allowed new graduate nurses to receive employment in areas that require nurses to have specialized skills and confidence to succeed. A needs assessment performed at Huntsman Cancer Institute's two infusion rooms and three offsite community infusion rooms revealed a lack of confidence in new nurses administering blood products, caring for central lines, utilizing and accessing oncology resources and managing infusion complications and emergencies. The purpose was to supplement new oncology nurses' orientation with an infusion didactic session after the first two weeks of bedside orientation. The learning session took place in a more structured, less stressful environment to provide knowledge, skills and promote confidence in newly hired infusion room nurses. A five-hour infusion-specific essentials didactic course was developed to promote learner engagement by using innovative learning techniques that included training, discussion and activities on central lines, blood administration, infusion complications/emergencies, and drug education resources. A high fidelity simulation of a new oncology patient who needed drug education, central line care, safe handling and administration of hazardous drugs and experienced a hypersensitivity reaction was conducted for application and solidification of concepts covered in class. Evaluation: Pre and post assessments using a fivepoint Likert-scale were administered to measure nurses' confidence levels in: caring for an infusion room patient independently, administering blood products, managing central lines, responding to infusion complications/emergencies and how to access resources. Nurses' confidence significantly increased on the post-assessment compared to pre-assessment. This program has been implemented into all newly hired oncology infusion room nurses' orientation. In late 2022 this program will be added to the Ambulatory Oncology Transition to Practice Program. The long term goal is to require the class for all newly hired nurses who administer hazardous drugs throughout inpatient and ambulatory areas of Huntsman Cancer Institute and its community sites. This program positively impacted nurses' confidence levels in caring for oncology patients in the infusion room by using creative learning techniques such as "what went wrong" video demonstrations, flipped classroom, group worksheets activities and discussion and a high fidelity simulation.