Knowledge, Attitude and Practices Regarding Counterfeit Drugs among Nurses of Madina Teaching Hospital Faisalabad

Abstract

Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and practices among nurses regarding counterfeit drugs. Methodology: Cross sectional study. The study was conducted in Madina Teaching Hospital which is attac\hed to the University Medical and Dental College Faisalabad. Total number of nurses was 60 and all were included in the study. Only nurses were chosen because of their direct involvement in administering the drug/injection during duty hours and also they are the first to notice any adverse effects of drugs. Data was collected through pretested restrictive form of questionnaire. Written permission from ethical review committee and informed consent from the participants was taken before conducting the survey. All questionnaires were edited before entering in the computer. Once the data had been cleaned as thoroughly as possible, the distribution of each variable was re-examined as a final check. Non-sampling errors like selection bias, non-coverage, non-contact and non-response were tried to minimize.

Results: Out of the 59 nurses who responded from a

total of 60, 57 (96.6%) had heard of incidences regarding counterfeit drugs (see table I). 59 (100%) considered them substandard in quality, 33 (55.9%) thought they were expired drugs, while 9 (15.3%) said that they were made from herbs (see table II). However a majority of 94.9% understood that they were harmful drugs. 100% nurses said they examined the packaging meticulously and checked the expiry date before administrating the drug (see table III). 98.3% sent any such drugs for laboratory testing (see table IV). 100% nurses immediately stopped the use of such drug (see table V). 34 out of the 59 nurses (57.6%) had seen adverse drug reaction in multiple patients. 89.8% said they kept records of such drugs and all of the participants (100%) reported such incidents to the authorities (see table VI). Conclusion: Majority of the nurses were aware of the counterfeit drugs problem and its effects on the patients. Over all, most of them understood that counterfeit drugs were harmful to the health of the patients and this study further helped to clear their concepts.