Nurses as adverse drug reaction reporting advocates.

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) is a challenge in modern healthcare, particularly given the increasing complexity of drug therapy, an ageing population, rising multimorbidity, and a high patient turnover. The core activity of detecting potential ADRs over the last half century has been spontaneous reporting systems. A recent Norwegian regulation commits healthcare professionals other than physicians and dentists to report serious ADRs. In this discussion paper, we share our preliminary experience with a training programme using nurses as ADR advocates to stimulate ADR reporting among the clinical staff in a hospital department. Central Illustration: Central Illustration Nurses as adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting advocates participating in pharmacovigilance (PV) at the Department of Heart Disease, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. The department is a 'lighthouse' (inspiring other departments) in PV in the hospital, and cooperates with the drug committee and the regional PV centre. Commitment is achieved through the department manager and the medical director in the hospital. In addition, a new national regulation commits healthcare professionals other than physicians and dentists to report serious ADRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]