Venus study: a research and education project on nurses and drug surveillance]

Venus study: a research and education project on nurses and drug surveillance. Introduction. Adverse events (AE) are a relevant problem with major health consequences for both patients and health system in different countries. Aims. To estimate and describe the AE and Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) detected by nurses in hospital during an observation time of six months. Methods. The observational study involved 174 nurses and 36 head nurses. Nurses recorded for each patient: health condition, unexpected AE, administered drugs, and suspected ADR. Nurses were also requested to send ADR reports to the Italian Pharmacovigilance System. Results. Data were collected from 4608 patients. Nurses identified AE in 2458 patients and observed 6647 different events, mostly psychiatric (800 cases). Female, elderly, and 0-1 years old patients, number of administered drugs, and poor health conditions were all risk factors for adverse events (p < 0.01). Nurses identified 160 patients with ADRs (3.5% of observed patients). Conclusions. Nurses have shown a good observational skill for AE, but low ability to detect ADRs probably due to lack of knowledge on drugs and ADR. For this reason a continuing education is essential.