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Nurses' self-reported medication competence in relation to their pharmacovigilant activities in clinical practice
Rose-Marie Johansson-Pajala1, Lene Martin, Johan Fastbom
1School of Health, Care and Social Welfare, Mälardalen University, Eskilstuna, Sweden.
Rationale, Aims And Objectives:
Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) represent a major health problem and previous studies show that nurses can have an active role in promoting medication safety. The aim of this study was to describe and evaluate nurses' self-reported competence and pharmacovigilant activities in clinical practice and also to explore the impact of age, education, workplace and nursing experience on these matters.
Methods:
This cross-sectional study was based on a questionnaire covering areas related to nurses' medication competence, including knowledge, assessment and information retrieval, and pharmacovigilant activities within these areas, for example, the detection and assessment of ADRs. A 45-item questionnaire was 2013 sent out to 296 nurses in different settings and counties in Sweden. They were selected on the basis of having applied to a university course including pharmacovigilance during 2008-2011. One hundred twenty-four had participated in the courses (exposed) and 172 had applied to the courses but not participated (unexposed).
Results:
Completed questionnaires were obtained from 75 exposed (60%) and 93 unexposed (54%) nurses. Overall nurses rated themselves high in medication competence but low in pharmacovigilant activities. Significant (P ≤ 0.001) differences between groups were observed regarding medication competence. The exposure of completed dedicated courses in pharmacovigilance was the strongest factor for self-reported medication competence when adjusted for age, other education, workplace and experience. No significant differences between the groups were found regarding the number of pharmacovigilant activities during the 6 months prior to answering the questionnaire.
Conclusion:
Dedicated university courses improved nurses' self-reported competence in pharmacovigilance but did not increase the number of related activities. Education per se seems to be not sufficient to generate pharmacovigilant activities among nurses.
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