To further strengthen and spruce up the Pharmacovigilance Programme of India (PvPI), the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) recently met nursing professionals seeking their involvement in reporting adverse drug reactions (ADRs). The main objective behind this strategic move was to focus on preventable ADRs across the country by actively working with the nurses as they can play a key role in preventing such incidence through careful monitoring.
It is understood that nurses report 17 per cent of the total ADRs and of which 20 to 30 per cent of ADRs are preventable. IPC informs that preventable ADRs usually occurs due to prescription error, administration error etc. This move is directed to leverage the best from the immense talent pool of nurses spread across the country, to manage risk on medicine as well as help promote patients safety.
IPC, which acts as the National Coordination Centre (NCC) for the PvPI, will provide the training of the nurses on identifying the red flags so as to avoid them to prevent any incidences. Experts point out that since they are the key point of contact between the patients and medicines in any healthcare system their role is a vital and that should be explored to enable accurate analysis on the reasons for the ADRs that generate from hospitals.
Dr V Kalaiselvan, principal scientific officer, Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission pointed out that safety surveillance has relied predominantly on spontaneous reporting system, which involves voluntary reporting of suspected ADRs from clinicians, pharmacists and nurses. Hospital nurses may play an important role in ADRs reporting, because they are in close contact with the patients for a longer duration and have good knowledge of health management, symptoms, drugs and ADRs.
“They are often the key source in alerting the responsible physician about possible ADRs. Thus, if we can extend our reach and actually train them to focus on the preventable aspect that can be avoided, we will be able to achieve a huge success in preventing ADRs. NCC-PvPI strongly wants to encourage all healthcare professionals including nursing staff on actively being a part of this system by not only reporting ADR, but also take precautions to prevent it from happening,” he added.