An educational intervention to improve nurses’ knowledge, attitude, and practice toward reporting of adverse drug reactions

BACKGROUND: The reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) by nurses in hospitals is very important. AIMS: This study was aimed at investigating the impact of an educational intervention to improve ADR reporting and whether trained nurses had better knowledge, attitude, and practice toward ADR reporting. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 nurses in a tertiary care teaching hospital in Tehran, Iran were evaluated with a knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) questionnaire regarding ADR reporting in March 2010. After this, an educational program about ADR was provided to nurses. Then the nurses were re-evaluated by the same questionnaire. Comparisons were made of the attitude and knowledge within nurses, before and after education. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. P < 0.05 was considered as significant level. Independent-sample t-test was used to measure the intervention effect. RESULTS: The response rate was 61.3% (N = 184). Knowledge of nurses before the intervention was significantly less than the knowledge after the intervention (P = 0.001). Also, there was a significant effect on attitude (P = 0.002). During the follow-up period of 4 months after the intervention, 26 spontaneous reports were received. CONCLUSION: Continuous ADR educational program, training, and integration of ADRs’ reporting into the activities of the nurses would likely improve ADR reporting.