Evidence and practice

Identifying and managing adverse drug reactions to promote medicines adherence and safety

Jodie Coulson Lecturer in prescribing and medicines optimisation, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, Heslington, England

Why you should read this article:

• To expand your knowledge of how different types of adverse drug reactions occur
• To enhance your understanding of how to identify and manage adverse drug reactions
• To consider how you could support patients’ adherence and safety in relation to medicines

Unpleasant side effects or adverse drug reactions (ADRs) caused by medicines can have significant effects on people’s quality of life and therapeutic outcomes. Knowledge of how ADRs occur enables nurses who prescribe and/or administer medicines to identify and manage them effectively, which can improve the patient experience and increase adherence. This article outlines the types of ADRs and explains how nurses can reduce medicines-related harm by following the principles of medicines optimisation, undertaking regular medication reviews and communicating openly with patients about their medicines.

Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2022.e11829

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

Correspondence

jodie.coulson@york.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Coulson J (2022) Identifying and managing adverse drug reactions to promote medicines adherence and safety. Nursing Standard. doi: 10.7748/ns.2022.e11829

Published online: 23 May 2022

Keywords :

adverse reactions - clinical - concordance - medicines - medicines management - medicines review - pharmacology