Knowledge, attitude and practice of adverse drug reactions reporting among nurses in a tertiary care centre

Background: Adverse drug reactions are one of the major medicine related problem related to pharmacotherapy which may lead to increased morbidity and mortality causing increased hospital stay and financial burden on the society. Spontaneous voluntary reporting of adverse drug reaction can play a vital role in generating safety signals in which nurses can play important role, hence this study was undertaken to evaluate the knowledge attitude and practice of ADR reporting along with factors affecting reporting among nurses.Methods: The present study was a cross sectional questionnaire based study, which included nurses of a tertiary care hospital in central India. We tried to find out the possible ways to perk up spontaneous reporting of ADR and factors responsible for scarce reporting of ADRs.Results: After analyzing the data, we observed few of responders were aware of the ADR reporting system and the most encouraging finding was that majority of the responders were of the view that this reporting system is necessary. However, response to practice related questions was below average. Main factors which discouraged ADR reporting by nurses was thinking that reporting would lead to extra work and non availability of forms.Conclusions: The deficiencies in ADR reporting require awareness so as to perquisite spontaneous reporting and improve safety of patients. Training to nurses will lead to improvement in reporting of ADR.