Improvement of knowledge, attitude and perception of healthcare workers about ADR, a pre- and post-clinical pharmacists' interventional study

PURPOSE: Healthcare workers have a main role in detection, assessment and spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs), and improvement of their related knowledge, attitude and perception is essential. The goal of this study was evaluation of clinical pharmacists' interventions in improvement of knowledge, attitude and perception of healthcare workers about ADRs in a teaching referral hospital, Tehran, Iran. METHOD: Changes in knowledge, attitude and perception of healthcare workers of Imam teaching hospital about ADRs were evaluated before and after clinical pharmacists' interventions including workshops, meetings and presentations. RESULTS: From the 100 participated subjects, 82 of them completed the study. 51% of the health workers have been aware of the Iranian Pharmacovigilance Center at the ministry of health before intervention and after that all the participants knew this centre. About awareness and detection of ADRs in patients, 69 (84.1%) healthcare workers recognised at least one, and following interventions, it was improved to 73 (89%). Only seven (8.5%) subjects have reported ADRs in before intervention phase that were increased significantly to 18 (22%) after intervention. CONCLUSION: Clinical pharmacists' interventions were successful in improvement of healthcare workers' knowledge, attitude and perception about ADRs and spontaneous reporting in our hospital.