Nurses improve medication safety with medication allergy and adverse drug reports.

Medicine-related illnesses cost more than 75 billion dollars annually. Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are the fourth to sixth leading causes of death in the United States. An educational campaign to reduce ADRs and improve documentation included (1) an allergy awareness campaign, (2) staff nurses' training on documentation of allergies/ADRs, (3) patient-oriented brochures to encourage allergy reporting and ADRs, and (4) a fact sheet about ADRs. As a result, the documentation of medication allergies and ADRs improved significantly in our organization.