A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine describes pharmaceutical industry activities targeted at registered nurses. Using qualitative, ethnographic methods to study pharmaceutical industry-nurse interactions at four acute care hospitals in one U.S. city, the authors found that nurses’ reported financial relationships with industry were similar to those reported by prescribers. However, nurses reported that their most significant interactions with industry occurred in daily practice.
The current policy environment rendered these interactions invisible, leaving nurses with little guidance to ensure that the boundary between service and sales remained intact. The authors concluded that nurse–industry interactions may be common and influential, but they remain invisible in the current policy climate. Management of industry interactions must include guidance for nurses.
Citation: Grundy Q, Bero LA, Malone RE. Marketing and the Most Trusted Profession: The Invisible Interactions between Registered Nurses and Industry. Ann Intern Med. 2016;164:733-739.
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