A Study On Barriers Towards Reporting Of Adverse Drug Reactions Among Healthcare Professionals

Healthcare professionals play an important role in the establishment and functionality of Pharmacovigilance in a country. Hence, it is important to understand the barriers and facilitators that could have a significant impact on Healthcare professionals (HCPs) beliefs and practices. However, barriers that lead to the underreporting of ADRs exist in all healthcare systems. For the identification of barriers and development of interventions, theoretical domains framework has been extensively been used. It consists of domains covering the main factors influencing behaviour and barriers to behavioral change. This study aimed to identify the barriers to reporting ADRs among healthcare professionals.  An observational study was conducted over a period of 6 months at Srinivas Institute of Medical Science & Research Centre, Mukka, Dakshina Kannada. A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect data on the barriers faced by 70 HCPs in reporting ADRs. From the data collected, it was revealed that majority of the Healthcare professionals were aware of what ADR was and had knowledge on ADR reporting system in India, but few of the nurses (6) lacked skills in reporting ADRs. Most of the HCPs (46) had fear of litigation, majority of HCPs complained lack of time and heavy workload as a major barrier to reporting ADRs. HCPs who were part of the study also informed there was active reporting of ADRs by the HCPs in the hospital and that there was no lack of team work. Based on the data collected it was found most of the HCPs were highly motivated and they had no problem in reporting of ADRs. In this study, lack of time, heavy workload, fear of litigation and punishment were identified as the main barriers to reporting ADRs among Healthcare professionals.