Pharmacovigilance and patient safety as a daily practice in nursing in two Latin-American countries

The study was conducted in Argentina and Peru, and focused on the settings of Nursing daily practice in the administration of safe medication on the axes of Pharmacovigilance and/or Patient Safety. The objective was to determine and compare Pharmacovigilance and Patient Safety as Nursing daily practices in public and private healthcare contexts, in order to identify settings that could lead to errors. This research was quantitative, relational, observational, prospective, cross-sectional, and analytical, with a comparative-relational design. Two validated and reliable instruments were used. Sample size: 230 nurses (Argentina =140, Peru = 90). Results: 81.8% of Huancavelica nurses, 68.6% of Chachapoyas (Peru), 73.7% of Buenos Aires, and 60.8% of Rosario (Argentina), indicated efficient Pharmacovigilance; whereas 71.4% of Chachapoyas nurses, 65.5% of Huancavelica (Peru); 52.6% of Buenos Aires, and 44.1% of Rosario (Argentina) indicated a secured Patient Safety. In both countries, 66% of nurses took the 10 correct steps for administering the medications. Additionally, 82% indicated that the medical prescription was illegible, and 86% expressed that the prescription was filled by the doctor in full. Conclusion: In both countries, Pharmacovigilance is applied efficiently and Patient Safety is secured. A contrast was made with the alternative hypothesis where both variables were interrelated, where: X2 = 16.807, gl = 2, p = 0.000. At the same time, there are significant differences between Argentina and Peru, with a Student’s t = 3.770, gl = 229, p = 0.000.