Evaluación de los conocimientos, actitudes y prácticas de farmacovigilancia a los farmacéuticos de hospitales públicos y privados registrados en la Unidad Zonal de Farmacovigilancia Coordinación Zonal 6 – Ecuador

Abstract

Adverse drug reactions are recognized as one of the causes of morbidity and mortality in patients admitted to a hospital being a very important factor for patient safety. The activities of health professionals related to pharmacovigilance are important elements to promote the safe use of medications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes and practices of hospital pharmacists regarding pharmacovigilance in public and private health establishments registered in the Zonal Unit of Pharmacovigilance, Zonal Coordination 6. The validated Nisa questionnaire (Nisa, et, al 2018) was used, which was applied to 36 pharmaceutical professionals who agreed to participate in the study. The results were obtained by applying descriptive statistics through measures of central tendency, frequency distribution and measures of variability. Regarding knowledge of pharmacovigilance, 61% of pharmacists know the basics of this activity; 58% have a positive attitude towards this activity, and 58.3% of the participants have not reported an adverse drug reaction in their practice as such. Seventy-five percent considered that patient safety is a factor that encourages the reporting of adverse drug reactions and 36.1% found some factors that discourage the practice. In addition, the main weaknesses in the daily practice of pharmacovigilance were identified and a training program was developed through a video. In conclusion, the study identified sufficient knowledge and attitudes in pharmacovigilance, but not in the practice of pharmacovigilance. It is suggested that the pharmacist should be part of the multidisciplinary health team in order to strengthen the reporting of adverse drug reactions.