Abstract

Background: Nurses who are bedside caregivers have a unique position monitoring patient’s drug therapy, and they are the ones who observe adverse drug reactions (ADRs) first hand. Knowledge of ADRs and practice of pharmacovigilance by nurses will definitely help to elevate the quality of pharmacotherapy in hospitals and effectively decrease the occurrence of ADRs.

Aims and Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of hospital’s nurses in a tertiary healthcare center, toward ADR reporting.

Materials and Methods: This study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. The questionnaire was distributed to 100 nurses serving in different departments in the hospital. Nurses who did not fill the questionnaire were excluded from the study.

Results: The response rate was 63%. The overall level of knowledge was found to be 56.4%. The level of attitude was 68.92%. 89.9% of the nurses agree that spontaneous reporting should be made compulsory. Awareness about the regional center for reporting ADR was nil among the nurses. Only 11.1% of nurses in the hospital had reported an ADR before.

Conclusion: Although nurses had a high level of attitude, they had only moderate level of knowledge, and practice was very poor. Necessary measures to be taken to create awareness among nurses about Pharmacovigilance Programme in India. They should be trained to spontaneously report ADRs.

Key words: Adverse Drug Reactions; Pharmacovigilance; Knowledge; Attitude and Practice; Nurses; South India