Teaching Student Veterinary Professionals About Pharmacovigilance: A Survey of UK Veterinary Educators

Adverse drug event (ADE) reports submitted by veterinary professionals are essential for monitoring the safety and efficacy of marketed veterinary products. Despite this, the majority of veterinary ADEs are not reported. Further education on the topic of pharmacovigilance has been widely explored in human healthcare as a potential facilitator for reporting. To guide design of an enhanced pharmacovigilance curriculum for veterinary professionals, a better understanding of student veterinary professional pharmacovigilance training is required. Therefore, we investigated the current UK pharmacovigilance curriculum through a survey of veterinary educators. In total, there were 17 responses from UK-based training providers, six relating to undergraduate veterinary surgeon training and 11 relating to training in veterinary nursing. All students received some pharmacovigilance training, which appeared to be largely didactic in nature. A total of 29.4% of respondents indicated that students are provided the opportunity to submit a practice ADE report. Exploration of the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of students with regards to this training would be useful in assessing quality and opportunities for enhancement. Development of shared resources which provide students with access to 'real world' examples of ADEs would support development of practical skills in identifying, managing, and reporting ADEs.