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Background: The education and training of health professions students in geriatric care is critical to their future clinical practice. However, the knowledge and attitude of health science students toward geriatric care are barely studied in Ethiopia. Objective: This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitude of graduating medical, pharmacy, and nursing (MPN) students towards geriatric care at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Gondar, North West Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 301 graduating MPN students using stratified random sampling from June 30, 2022, to July 30, 2022. The data was collected by using previously validated self-administered structured questionnaires and analyzed using SPSS version 26. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were done. A statistical significance was declared at a p-value < 0.05. Results: The majority of graduating MPN students had either neutral (70.76%) or positive (16.28%) attitudes towards older people; however, a greater amount (88%) of them had poor knowledge of geriatric care. The knowledge of female students was significantly less favorable than the knowledge of male students (p-value < 0.001). The knowledge and attitudes of pharmacy and nursing students were significantly lower than medical students (p-value < 0.001). The attitude mean rank score of students aged ≤25 years was significantly lower than students aged >25 years (p-value < 0.001). Conclusion: The majority of graduating MPN students had poor knowledge despite having either a neutral or positive attitude toward geriatric care. Female students had lower knowledge scores than male students. Similarly, pharmacy and nursing students had lower knowledge and attitude scores than medical students, and the attitude score of students aged ≤ 25 years was lower than students aged >25 years. Their respective departments should implement a strategy to improve the knowledge of MNP students.
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BACKGROUND: Medication errors are the most common cause of preventable adverse drug events at the emergency ward. OBJECTIVES: This study assessed medication errors and associated factors among adult patients admitted to the emergency ward at the University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital, North-West Ethiopia. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted from June 1, 2022, to August 30, 2022. Data were entered into EpiData Manager 4.6.0.0 for clearing and exported to SPSS version 24 for analysis. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, medians with an interquartile range and inferential statistics like binary logistic regression were used for data analysis. The level of significance was declared at a p value less than 0.05 with a 95% confidence interval. RESULTS: From 422 study participants, medication errors were found in three-fourths (74.4%) of study participants. The most frequent type of medication error was omitted dose (26.27%). From a total of 491 medication errors, 97.75% were not prevented before reaching patients. More than one-third (38.9%) of medication errors had potentially moderate harmful outcomes. More than half (55.15%) of possible causes of medication errors committed by staff are due to behavioral factors. Physicians accepted 99.16% and nurses accepted 98.71% of clinical pharmacist intervention. Hospital stay ≥ 6 days (AOR: 3.00 95% CI 1.65-5.45, p < 0.001), polypharmacy (AOR: 5.47, 95% CI 2.77-10.81 p < 0.001), and Charlson comorbidity index ≥ 3 (AOR: 1.94, 95% CI (1.02-3.68), p < 0.04) significantly associated with medication error. CONCLUSIONS: About three-fourths of adult patients admitted to the emergency ward experienced medication errors. A considerable amount of medication errors were potentially moderately harmful. Most medication errors were due to behavioral factors. Most clinical pharmacists' interventions were accepted by physicians and nurses. Patients who stayed longer at the emergency ward, had a Charlson comorbidity index value of ≥ 3, and were on polypharmacy were at high risk of medication error. The hospital should strive to reduce medication errors at the emergency ward.
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Background Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are major health problems which are of global concern. Spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions constitutes a crucial contribution to patient care. Objective The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare professionals towards adverse drug reaction reporting. Setting Health care professionals in Gondar, Ethiopia. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from March to May 2017. Data were collected through self-administered questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS version 20. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to distinguish factors that affect adverse drug reaction reporting. A p value < 0.05 was considered as a statistically significant. Main outcome measure Factors affecting adverse drug reaction reporting of health care professionals. Results Of 102 healthcare professionals included in this study, 61 (59. 8%) were nurses, 16 (15.7%) health officers, and 25 (24.5%) pharmacy professionals. Nearly 48 (47%) study participants had an inadequate level of knowledge towards adverse drug reaction reporting. The majority of participants 88 (86.3%) had a positive attitude, while more than half (51%) of study participants did not report the adverse drug reaction they encountered. Participants who had not taken adverse drug reaction reporting training (p = 0.037), health officers (p = 0.019), and nurse professionals (p = 0.001) showed a statistically significant association with an inadequate level of knowledge. Conclusion Even though the majority of healthcare professionals had a positive attitude, they had an inadequate level of knowledge and practice towards adverse drug reaction reporting.
