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. 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. A 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. After 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. The 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.

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Impact of an educational intervention on pharmacovigilance knowledge and attitudes among health professionals in a Nepal cancer hospital

Background: Underreporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is common globally, and Nepal is not an exception to this. Health-care professionals (HCPs) play a vital role in reporting ADR during rou...

Health-care Professionals' Knowledge and Perception of Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting and Pharmacovigilance in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital of Nepal.

The Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI) aims at sensitizing the healthcare professionals towards strengthening the Spontaneous reporting system in order to protect the lives of millions of people living in a vast country like India. Currently India’s contribution to global drug safety database is about 3%, which is meagre in comparison with the huge population. In terms of number India has reported 1,81,656 ADR’s over the period from April 2011 – March 2016 to National Coordination Center (NCC) for Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI).This present study was done to identify the possible factors responsible for underreporting (UR) of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) and encourage the healthcare professionals to substantiate the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI). The present study was a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) of pharmacovigilance among practicing healthcare professionals working in the Saveetha Medical College & Hospital, Thandalam, Chennai. The statistical analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 software. The result shows difference in explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge among healthcare professionals. Attitude questions have identified the affective behaviour of the respondents and practice questions shows evidence of a paradigm shift towards an organized pharmacovigilance constructivism. KAP of the healthcare professionals highlights the under-reporting of ADR, Multimodality interventions are needed to improve spontaneous ADR reporting.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Pharmacovigilance Among the Healthcare Professionals in A Tertiary Care Hospital – A Questionnaire Study

In the era of modern medicine drugs are very commonly used. Usage of drugs not only results in beneficial effects but also may result in some unexpected or noxious effects commonly known as adverse drug reactions (ADR). No drug is exempt from the potential of ADR. As defined by the WHO ADR is any noxious, unintended and undesired effect of the drug which occurs at doses used in humans for prophylaxis, diagnosis or therapy of a disease or the modification of the physiological state.1 Pharmacovigilance is the branch of pharmacology which deals with ADR.

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Awareness of pharmacovigilance and adverse drug reactions among second professional MBBS students of a medical college in Kerala, India

Introduction: Pharmacovigilance helps in the detection and prevention of adverse effects of drugs. For effectiveness of this program, health care professionals should report adverse drug reactions considering it as their moral and professional obligation. The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of the doctors towards pharmacovigilance in a tertiary care teaching hospital situated in Province two.
Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was carried out using self-administered questionnaire consisting of four parts; first part included demographic profile of participants, second part consisted of ten questions for the assessment of the knowledge about pharmacovigilance, third part comprised of six questions on attitude and forth part consisted of five questions on practice. The results were depicted in the form of percentage for each questionnaire.
Results: The response rate of participants was 88.51%. Pharmacovigilance was correctly defined by 52%. Department of drug administration is the responsible body for monitoring adverse drug reactions in Nepal which was correctly answered by 80% of the participants. Only 8% had reported adverse drug reactions though 62% had encountered it in their clinical practice.
Conclusion: The study revealed poor knowledge, attitude and practices of pharmacovigilance among practicing doctors, thus educational intervention is needed for the proper functioning of this program.

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Knowledge, attitude and practices of pharmacovigilance among doctors at a tertiary care teaching hospital birgunj, nepal

Pharmacovigilance (PV) is the science and activities related to the detection, assessment, understandingand prevention of adverse effects. Healthcare professionals (HCPs) have an important role in reportingAdverse Drug Reaction (ADR) cases. However under-reporting has been a major challenge in PV. Hence, weassessed the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of HCPs about PV in a tertiary hospital of Kathmandu. Across-sectional study was conducted using pretested questionnaire consisting of 21 closed ended questions(twelve on knowledge, five on attitude, four on practice and one open ended question to know the causesof under-reporting. Out of 520 HCPs, 448 (207 doctors and 241 nurses) participated in the study with theresponse rate of 86.2%. The mean KAP score for doctors was 10.38 ± 2.68 and 9.60 ± 2.32 for nurses. Themajor barriers for under-reporting were identified as the difficulty in deciding if it’s an ADR and lack oftime to report ADRs. No significant correlation between knowledge and attitude of the HCPs was found(r=0, n=448, p< 0.01). However, there was a weak positive correlation between knowledge and practice (r=0.05, n=448, p< 0.01) and also for attitude and practice (r= 0.09, n=448, p< 0.01). Hence, the HCPs had poorknowledge and practice but positive attitude towards PV. It is therefore strongly recommended to have animmediate educational intervention among the HCPs to improve the spontaneous ADR reporting
Keywords : Adverse drug reaction,attitude, knowledge, Nepal,pharmacovigilance, practice

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D Shrestha

Papers

Assessment on Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Pharmacovigilance among the Healthcare Professionals in a Tertiary Hospital of Kathmandu