Industry Influence And The Nursing Profession: Case Study

Industry Influence and the Nursing Profession

Lea R Kirkman

Western Governor’s University

Policy Issue

Over the past several years, the public has become increasingly aware of physicians and providers supplementing their incomes with financial incentives from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers (Thomas et al., 2014). These incentives include financial compensation, extravagant meals, and educational conferences in exotic locations with all expenses paid. Meanwhile, the cost of health care to consumers continues to soar, disproportionately in the United States compared to other industrialized nations. Most of the public would conclude that such gifts reflect a conflict
Receiving any form of compensation by the pharmaceutical or device industry has the potential to be detrimental to these values. This is eloquently stated in a small yet relevant study by Quinn Grundy entitled “My love-hate relationship: Ethical issues associated with nurses’ interactions with industry”. In the conclusion of this study Mr. Grundy states that because “trust is a cornerstone of nursing practice, conflict of interest should be a key ethical concern. Theorists have suggested a reimagining of the ethic of trust, grounded in feminist theory, as comprising both an ethic of care and an ethic of justice that simultaneously validates the work of caring, while politicizing this activity in terms of social justice. This perspective would nursing to adopt a much more critical stance toward interactions with industry in everyday clinical practice, and an understanding of broader social justice implications of (these) marketing activities.” (Grundy,
The ANA code of ethics states in Provision 2 that “ the nurse’s primary commitment is to the patient, whether an individual, group or community (Fowler, 2008).” Included in Provision 2.2 is “conflict of interest.” Accepting gifts and incentives from pharmaceutical and device representatives clearly implies a conflict of interest, because these incentives have been proven to influence a nurse’s behavior. For the CNA, the code does not directly address the issue of accepting gifts from the pharmaceutical industry but it does state that nurses “should be sufficiently clear and reflective about their personal values to recognize any value conflicts” and “must recognize that they have the ability to engage in determining and expressing their own moral choices.” (Hagen et al., 2008). This supports the idea that the use of health care resources should only be based on what is in the best interests of the