The impact of educational interventional session on healthcare providers knowledge about pharmacovigilance at a tertiary Jordanian teaching hospital

OBJECTIVE: A limited number of educational interventions among health care providers and students have been made in Jordan concerning the pharmacovigilance. Therefore, the main aim of this study was to evaluate how an educational workshop affected the understanding of and attitudes toward pharmacovigilance among healthcare students and professionals in a Jordanian institution. METHODS: A questionnaire was used before and after an educational event to evaluate the pre- and post-knowledge and perception of pharmacovigilance and reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) among a variety of students and healthcare professionals at Jordan University Hospital. RESULTS: The educational workshop was attended by 85 of the 120 invited healthcare professionals and students (a response rate of 70.8%). The majority of respondents were capable of defining ADRs (n = 78, 91.8%) and pharmacovigilance accurately (n = 74, 87.1%) in terms of their prior understanding of the topic. Around 54.1% of the participants (n = 46) knew the definition of type A ADRs while 48.2% of them (n = 41) knew the definition of type B ADRs. Additionally, around 72% of the participants' believed that only serious and unexpected ADRs should be reported (n = 61, 71.8%), also, 43.5% of them (n = 37) believed that ADRs should not be reported until the specific medication that caused it is known. The majority of them (n = 73, 85.9%) agreed that reporting of ADRs was their responsibility. The interventional educational session has significantly and positively impacted participants' perceptions (p value ≤ 0.05). The most reason for not reporting ADRs as stated by the study participants was the lack of information provided by patients (n = 52, 61.2%) and the lack of enough time to report (n = 10, 11.8%). CONCLUSION: Participants’ perspectives have been greatly and favorably impacted by the interventional educational session. Thus, ongoing efforts and suitable training programs are required to assess the effect of bettering knowledge and perception on the practice of ADRs reporting.