%0 Journal Article
%T Transforming Pharmacovigilance Practice Through Education: A Sustained Intervention Study Among Hospital Pharmacists in Dubai
%A Mark Anderson
%A Lisa Wong
%A Sarah Lee
%J Annals of Pharmacy Education, Safety, and Public Health Advocacy
%@ 3108-4850
%D 2024
%V 4
%N 2
%R 10.51847/f57euUGRaC
%P 123-143
%X The objective of this investigation was to evaluate how a custom-designed educational intervention influenced knowledge, attitudes, practices, barriers, and facilitating factors related to pharmacovigilance (PV) among institutional pharmacists practicing in Dubai. Pharmacists across three hospital sites participated in an instructional intervention comprising a PowerPoint lecture and a practical, hands-on workshop focused on PV. Ongoing follow-up communications supplemented this via WhatsApp over the course of 6 months. To measure the module’s efficacy, a structured questionnaire was administered at baseline and at 3 and 6 months following the intervention. Median (IQR) scores derived from individual Likert-type items were compared across various demographic variables employing Mann–Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Inter-variable correlations were assessed via Spearman’s rank correlation and Pearson’s R (interval-by-interval) tests. In contrast, the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to evaluate pre- versus post-intervention scores at the alpha = 0.05 significance level. Among the 60 enrolled participants, post-intervention assessments revealed that overall knowledge scores rose significantly from a baseline of 14 (12–15)/18 to 17 (16–18) at 3 months (P < 0.001), and reached 18 (17–18) at 6 months (P < 0.001). Similarly, attitude scores increased from 25 (23–26)/30 at baseline to 27 (26–29) at 3 months (P < 0.001), and further escalated to 28 (27–29) at 6 months (P < 0.001). Practice scores likewise demonstrated progress, shifting from 9 (7–11)/24 at baseline to 9.5 (8–11) at 3 months (P < 0.001), and to 10 (8–11) at 6 months (P < 0.001). Corresponding positive shifts were observed regarding the factors driving adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting and the mitigation of existing barriers. The instructional program demonstrated a particularly notable effect on boosting knowledge levels among participants within the 20–29 and 30–39 age brackets, as substantiated by Spearman correlation analysis (P = 0.001 (r = 0.854) and P = 0.003 (r = 0.468), respectively). The outcomes of this research underscore the effectiveness of targeted educational interventions in improving pharmacovigilance-related knowledge, attitudes, and clinical practices among institutional pharmacists. While this initiative represents a pioneering effort in its context, the outcomes may have been confounded by external variables affecting the metric responses. With appropriate contextual modifications, this training framework could be adopted by healthcare organizations to augment pharmacovigilance operations within their respective clinical environments.
%U https://smerpub.com/article/transforming-pharmacovigilance-practice-through-education-a-sustained-intervention-study-among-hosp-93ecrdintnglclb