Abstract
When nurses in orthopaedic settings are educating a patient about the medications, they address not just those medications related to the current orthopaedic problem, but all medications the patient is using. During these education sessions, nurses will often be asked about new medications, changes in medications, or medication recalls the patient may have heard about from friends or through media sources. One up-to-date resource for drug information that nurses can readily access is the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Web site. In the following article, selected examples of information available from the Food and Drug Administration includes recently approved drugs, new drug combinations, new formulations of established drugs, and drug alerts or warnings. Informed nurses, able to educate patients with accurate information about all the medications they are using, can reduce the potential for harm and decrease unnecessary stress and anxiety.