Exploring differences in symptomatic adverse events assessment between nurses and physicians in the clinical trial...

Area of Science:

• Clinical Nursing
• Pharmacovigilance
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Accurate assessment of symptomatic adverse events (AEs) is crucial for effective patient management.
• Discrepancies in AE detection between healthcare professionals can impact treatment decisions and patient outcomes.
• Standardized criteria like the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) aim to improve AE assessment consistency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare the symptomatic AE assessments between nurses and physicians using CTCAE.
• To evaluate the agreement between healthcare professionals and patients (using PRO-CTCAE) in AE reporting.
• To identify potential differences in AE detection and grading that could affect patient care.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study conducted at a tertiary hospital from April to July 2020.
• Nurses and physicians assessed patient symptomatic AEs using the CTCAE.
• Patients reported their AEs using the Patient-Reported Outcomes Version of the CTCAE (PRO-CTCAE).

Main Results:

• Nurses detected statistically significantly more symptomatic AEs than physicians (P < 0.001).
• Toxicity grading showed no significant difference between nurses and physicians, except for fatigue (P = 0.024).
• Agreement was highest between nurses and patients, followed by nurses vs. physicians and physicians vs. patients.

Conclusions:

• Significant differences exist in the detection of symptomatic AEs between nurses and physicians.
• The higher agreement between nurses and patients suggests nurses may better capture patient-reported experiences.
• Establishing a collaborative approach between nurses and physicians is essential for consistent AE management and continuity of care.