Course Introduction

Health care workers who prepare or administer hazardous drugs (e.g., those used for cancer therapy, some antiviral drugs, hormone agents, and bioengineered drugs) or who work in areas where these drugs are used may be exposed to these agents in the workplace.

About 8 million U.S. healthcare workers are potentially exposed to hazardous drugs, including:

• pharmacy and nursing personnel
• physicians
• operating room personnel
• environmental services workers
• workers in research laboratories
• shipping and receiving personnel

Studies have shown workplace exposures to hazardous drugs can cause both acute and chronic health effects such as skin rashes, adverse reproductive outcomes (including infertility, spontaneous abortions, and congenital malformations), and possibly leukemia and other cancers.

The health risk depends on how much exposure a worker has to these drugs and how toxic they are. Workers can be protected from exposures to hazardous drugs through engineering and administrative controls, and proper protective equipment. This course specifically looks at ways to prevent dangerous exposure to hazardous drugs in the pharmaceutical setting.

Course Components

Once you complete this course, you will have knowledge of the following components:

• health effects of hazardous drugs
• creating a hazardous drug safety and health plan
• use of hazardous drugs
• hazardous drug handling practices
• personal protective equipment
• workplace violence
• ergonomic injuries

Modules

To begin your training, click on the module links below. If you are just starting this course, you should start with module 1.

1. Hazardous Drugs
2. The Use of Hazardous Drugs
3. Other Hazards in Pharmacy Setting

Please login to your student dashboard to access and download this FREE course PDF studyguide. You can save this study guide to your computer for offline studying, or print the study guide if you prefer.

Course 630 Final Exam

After studying the course material and answering the quiz questions, it is time to take the final exam. We highly recommend answering the module quiz questions to check your understanding of the course material. The final exam questions are typically developed from these quiz questions.

OSHAcademy course final exams are designed to make sure students have gained a sufficient understanding of the content covered within each course. To help demonstrate this understanding, students must achieve a passing score on course final exams. It is OSHAcademy's policy to protect the integrity of our exams: as a result, we do not provide missed questions to students.

This is an open book exam. Students are permitted to use a separate browser window to review course content while taking the exam. If you do not pass a final exam, you will see a "Retake Exam" button next to the course on your student dashboard.

If you have already paid for your certificate

If you have already paid for certificates, your exam score will be displayed on your student dashboard after successfully passing the final exam. If you chose PDF certificates, you can view and print your certificate and personal transcript from your student dashboard. If you chose original printed documents, they will be prepared and mailed to the address in your student account.

If you only want free training

OSHAcademy provides free access to all training materials, including course modules, practice quizzes, exercises, and final exams. However, exam scores, certificates, and transcripts are provided only if you purchase a certificate package to document your training. If you do not require official training documentation, we will archive your exam results should you decide to purchase official certificates later.

Take the Final Exam

Endnotes

1. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2014). Pharmacy Etools. Retrieved from: www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/hospital/pharmacy/pharmacy.html

2. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (2011). Hazardous Drugs. Retrieved from: www.osha.gov/SLTC/hazardousdrugs/index.html

3. Occupational Safety and Health Administration. (1999). Prevention of Employee Exposure to Hazardous Drugs. Retrieved from: www.osha.gov/dts/osta/otm/otm_vi/otm_vi_2.html#5

4. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2009). Violence against Pharmacist. Retrieved from: blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2009/02/17/pharmacists/

Additional Resources

• An Ergonomics Guide for Hospital Pharmacists
• Pharmacy Violence
• Sample Pharmacy Hazardous Drug Program (.doc file)
• Hospital eTool - Pharmacy, OSHA
• NIOSH Alert = Preventing Occupational Exposures to Antineoplastic and Other Hazardous Drugs in Health Care Settings, NIOSH