Perception of Pharmacovigilance by Nurses and Midwives of the Cocody University Teaching Hospital in Abidjan

Objective: To assess the perception on pharmacovigilance by the nurses and midwives at the University Teaching Hospital (CHU) of Cocody in 2017. Methodology: Descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study conducted in 17 services of the University Teaching Hospital (CHU) of Cocody using an anonymized and standardized questionnaire. Results: The response rate was 39.33% for the 86 nurses and 21 midwives with at least 10 years of professional experience (50.6%). 57.94% of the respondents (n = 62) have already heard about pharmacovigilance during their basic training (40.18%, n = 43). However, only 19.63% (21/107) of the respondents knew about the existence of a pharmacovigilance unit which they wrongly located to the pharmacy (11/21) of the CHU of Cocody. 40.18% of respondents (n = 43) had previously experienced an adverse drug reaction that was reported (76.74%, n = 33) to a hierarchical supervisor (60.60%, n = 20). The causes of non-reporting were either the frequent occurence (4/10) or the benign nature (2/10) of the adverse drug reaction. Specific actions to be taken (37.38%, n = 40) and a feedback (28.97%, n = 31) were the respondents’ main expectations for the stimulation of the reporting system. They also wanted the pharmacovigilance monitors to regularly visit their services (34.57%, n = 37) and to provide them with the reporting forms (30.84%, n = 33). Conclusion: Our study has allowed us to highlight the lack of knowledge of the pharmacovigilance and to identify certain factors that could improve the perception of the pharmacovigilance by the nurses and the midwives in Ivory Coast.