An Educational Intervention to Improve Adverse Drug Reaction Reporting: An Observational Study in a Tertiary Hospital in Vietnam

Context: Under-reporting of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are common. Aims: The study aimed to describe ADR reports after an educational intervention for physicians and nurses by clinical pharmacists. Methods and Material: Pharmacists conducted two separate training sessions for physicians and nurses in January and February 2019 in a tertiary hospital. The hospital collected all ADR reports from January to December 2019. Results: In 2019, the hospital reported 147 ADR cases, increasing 12.25 times compared to 2018. All ADR reports had complete information fields. The majority of ADR reports were collected by physicians (64.6%) and pharmacists (24.5%). The departments reporting the most ADRs were internal respiratory medicine (21.8%) and obstetrics (14.3%). Most ADRs were not serious (90.5%). The most-reported clinical signs were pruritus (64.0%) and erythema/redness (61.9%). All cases recovered without any complication after treatment. ADR reports were mainly related to the parenteral route (79.6%), and antibiotics (66.0%), analgesics (18.3%). Conclusions: Training of physicians and nurses by pharmacists on ADR significantly increased the quantity and quality of ADR reporting. More intensive and specific training and other measures are needed to improve the under-reporting of ADRs.