Publication:

A questionnaire based study on the knowledge, attitude, practice of staff nurses about pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care hospital

Background Adverse drug reactions (ADR) - one of the global problems of major concern leading to morbidity and mortality. Spontaneous reporting of ADR is the cornerstone of Pharmacovigilance (PV) programme and it is important to reduce the risk of drug related harm to the patient. The active participation of healthcare professionals (Doctors, Nurses, Pharmacist) play a major role in the success of Pharmacovigilance. The objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, practice of Staff Nurses about Pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care hospital.

Methods A Cross sectional, Observational questionnaire based study was carried out using a pre designed KAP questionnaire. Study included 100 staff nurses who were working in Hassan institute of medical sciences (HIMS). The results were analyzed using descriptive statisticsResults: In our study 65% participants knows the correct definition and 48.8% knows the important purpose of Pharmacovigilance and 77.5% aware of existence of ADR reporting system in India. There was huge gap between ADR experienced (53.8%) and ADR reported (21.3%). The determinants of under reporting from our study include Lack of time / overburdened (33.7%) and lack of knowledge about ADR (31.25%).

Conclusions This study showed that majority of participants understand the need for reporting of ADR. In spite of that the reporting rate of ADRs by them is very low. Hence, there is a need to create awareness about the importance of reporting ADR by conducting many Pharmacovigilance programme.