[Adverse drug effect notifications by nurses and comparison with cases reported by physicians]

The aim of the present study was to investigate the characteristics of adverse drug reactions reported by hospital doctors and nurses from Toulouse University Hospital between 1992 and 1993. During these two years, doctors and nurses reported 1498 and 164 adverse drug reactions respectively. Nurses reported significantly more cutaneous side effects than doctors (50 vs 24 per cent). Doctors reported significantly more neuropsychiatric, haematologic, hepatic or renal side effects than nurses. Imputability (causal relation) score of adverse drug reactions given by nurses was higher than that of doctors: nurses reported more observations with imputability equal to I3 (likely: 55 vs 46 per cent) and less with imputability equal to I1 (doubtful: 3 vs 23 per cent). Serious side effects (as defined by WHO) were more often seen by doctors (19 per cent) than by nurses (10 per cent). The more frequently suspected drugs were antiinfectious agents (35 per cent) and analgesics (7 per cent) for nurses, and neurotropic drugs (23 per cent) for doctors. Side effects reported by nurses were mainly observed after parenteral administration (48 per cent) whereas doctors reported mostly side effects seen after oral route (66 per cent). This study underlines the characteristics of adverse drug reactions which can be reported by nurses.