Abstract
BackgroundPharmacovigilance (PV) knowledge and attitudes among health care professionals (HCPs) directly affect the practice of PV and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a hospital. The main aim of the study was to assess the impact of an education intervention on the knowledge and attitude of HCPs attached to the regional PV center in an oncology based hospital of Nepal.MethodsA pre-post intervention questionnaire-based study was conducted amongst HCPs, i.e. nurses and pharmacists of an oncology based hospital of Nepal. A 21-item pretested PV questionnaire (twelve and four statements for assessing knowledge and attitude respectively) was used before and after an educational intervention among 89 HCPs working in the hospital. SPSS version 21.0 was used to analyze pre- and post-survey data with descriptive and inferential statistics. The knowledge and attitude scores before and after educational intervention were analyzed with Wilcoxon rank-sum test.ResultsAfter the educational intervention, the mean score for knowledge about PV and ADR increased from [mean ± S.D] 6.90 ± 2.527 (pre-test) to 11.36 ± 1.189 (post-test, p < 0.001). There were significant improvements after an educational intervention in attitude from 1.80 ± 0.932 (pre-test) to 3.61 ± 0.556 (post-test, p < 0.001). Twenty-one (23.6%) of participants responded that they lacked the time to report ADR, while 12 (13.5%) replied that there was no remuneration for reporting ADR. Approximately 24% of them recommended frequent pharmacovigilance awareness programs via continuing medical education or other similar kinds of workshops for improvement of pharmacovigilance.ConclusionThe preliminary findings of this study showed that knowledge and attitude scores were increased following an educational intervention. They also suggested that training on PV and ADR tends to have a positive impact on knowledge and attitude among nurses and pharmacists working at an oncology based hospital in Nepal.
Highlights
Pharmacovigilance (PV) knowledge and attitudes among health care professionals (HCPs) directly affect the practice of PV and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a hospital
ADR sometimes causes an additional treatment while managing ADRs leading to the economic burden, which can be minimized by ADR reporting [5, 7]
The present questionnaire-based pre-post intervention cross-sectional study was conducted at a regional PV center at an oncology hospital in Nepal to assess the impact of educational training on HCPs’ knowledge and attitude towards PV
Summary
Pharmacovigilance (PV) knowledge and attitudes among health care professionals (HCPs) directly affect the practice of PV and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in a hospital. PV of antineoplastic agents is necessary for the safety of lives and to utilize available health resources cost-effectively [4]. In clinical practice, both from clinical and economic points of view, ADRs may have a dramatic influence [5, 6]. Not notifying and reporting harmful effects of a drug even after experiencing it, is not ethical This might intentionally place the risk to other patients or consumers with the same medicines [8]. ADR reporting and PV have significant public health implications as these contribute to the prevention of future similar types of ADRs, possibly saving lives and reducing the economic burden
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