Every nurse knows the havoc chemotherapy wreaks on the body, but most nurses aren’t as knowledgeable on how to treat chemo reactions as, say, chemo or oncology nurses. Even host Sarah Lorenzini is slightly intimidated by unpredictable reactions from chemotherapy! That’s why this episode is centered around those super scary chemotherapy reactions and how to treat them.

To help us dive further into this topic, Sarah is speaking with another rapid response nurse, Montana RN. He has a dramatic patient story to share about rigors, a chemotherapy reaction that occurs as the body is trying to mount a febrile response to the medication. Not only was his patient visibly struggling, but he was hypoxic and there was no doctor available to prescribe medication to treat the reaction.

As Montana and Sarah study this patient’s case, you’ll find out what type of reaction the patient was having and walk away with the knowledge of how to treat chemotherapy reactions and their symptoms, the use of desensitization procedures for reactions to chemo agents, and why it’s important to know your hospital’s chemo reaction protocol.

There’s so much to learn about chemotherapy reactions and the nurse’s role in caring for this patient population during a really scary experience.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• What led Montana to become a rapid response nurse
• How the patient presented and his initial assessment
• What rigors looks like and the pathophysiology behind this scary looking symptom
• Treatment options for rigors
• Why Montana had to bring the patient to the ER
• How to treat a reaction and its symptoms
• The patient’s treatment and outcome
• Montana’s takeaways from this experience

Mentioned in this episode:

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Coming Soon! Rapid Response Academy: The Heart and Science of Caring for the Sick

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