Abstract

Padmavathi G. V. 1 *, Beere Nagaraju2 , Divakara P. 3 , Suresh Kumar P. 4 , Surendranath A. 5 and Sunil R. Patel6

Pharmacovigilance is an important and integral part of clinical research. With burgeoning reports of adverse drug reactions (ADR) due to pharmacotherapy, pharmacovigilance (PV) is the buzz word in health care circles. India has 15 thousand hospitals having bed strength of 6lakh, 24 thousand. It is the fourth largest producer of pharmaceuticals in the world. It is emerging as an important clinical trial hub in the world. Many new drugs are being introduced in our country. Adverse drug reactions enhance suffering of patients and increase morbidity and mortality. The aim of this study is to evaluate the awareness of nursing staff working in Bangalore regarding PV, and its reporting. A questionnaire containing 27 questions was prepared and distributed to 230 nurses. Response rate of this survey was 64.35%. Out of these, 31.76% were hospital nurses, 26.35% were community nurses and 41.89% were teaching field nurses. Only 40.54% of nurses were found to know the broad meaning of pharmacovigilance. The correct meaning of the term 'adverse drug reaction' was known to 27.70% nurses. Majority of nurses (77.03%) did not report the ADRs noticed by them. Only 4.05% nurses had tentative information that reporting can be done at national monitoring center and/or regional monitoring centers and/or peripheral monitoring centers. Further, only 3.38% nurses knew Victoria Hospital/Bangalore Medical College as the ADR monitoring centers of Bangalore. Out of these, only 0.68% nurses had the phone number and/or address of these centers. It indicates that the ADR reporting is done by nurses at places other than official monitoring centers. Nurses reported ADRs to physicians, Head Nurse, product management team, Pharmacist and chief pharmacist. Nurses in Bangalore have poor basic knowledge of Pharmacovigilance, ADR and its reporting. Nurse's participation in ADR reporting is negligibly low. Education and training of nurses is essential to improve the ADR reporting. Nurse's active participation along with other healthcare providers would increase the ADR reporting rate. Pharmacovigilance should be included in the nursing curriculum.