Hazardous drugs, which include many chemotherapy agents and some other medications, require special handling procedures to protect the technicians and pharmacists who prepare and dispense them, since occupational exposure over time carries genuine health risks.
Identifying Hazardous Drugs
Hazardous drugs are typically identified through a facility hazardous drug list, often based on national guidance, and are usually stored, labeled, and transported separately from non-hazardous inventory to prevent accidental exposure or accidental mixing with routine stock.
Personal Protective Equipment
Handling hazardous drugs generally requires personal protective equipment such as chemotherapy-rated gloves, gowns, and sometimes eye protection or respiratory protection, particularly when preparing sterile hazardous compounds in a properly ventilated containment device.
- Use closed-system transfer devices where required
- Never eat, drink, or apply cosmetics in hazardous drug handling areas
- Follow facility spill response procedures immediately if an exposure occurs
- Dispose of hazardous drug waste in designated containers, not regular trash
Why This Is Both a Patient and Staff Safety Issue
While the patient-facing focus of pharmacy work often centers on the person receiving the medication, hazardous drug handling protocols exist primarily to protect the staff preparing and dispensing these products from repeated occupational exposure over the course of a career.
Putting This Into Practice
Candidates sometimes treat operational topics like this as less important than pure pharmacology, but the order entry and patient safety domains draw heavily on exactly this kind of practical, process-oriented knowledge, making it well worth the study time it requires.
A Final Thought
It is worth noting that many technicians describe this exact kind of operational knowledge as something that only truly clicks once they see or perform it in a real pharmacy setting, so seeking out any available hands-on exposure alongside your reading is genuinely valuable. If your study materials include a diagram or flowchart related to this topic, spending a few extra minutes tracing through it by hand often cements the sequence of steps more effectively than reading a paragraph description alone.
Hazardous drug safety is both a patient care issue and a workplace safety issue, and technicians who work in oncology or infusion settings should expect thorough training beyond exam-level basics. CPHTprep's flashcards cover the exam-level basics of hazardous drug handling if you want a quick review.