Ethics of pharmaceutical company relationships with the nursing profession: No free lunch….and no more pens?
Elizabeth Crock
Australian and New Zealand Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (Victorian Branch), Clinical Nursing, HIV/AIDS, Melbourne VIC
PP: 202 - 209
Abstract
In recent years, nurses have increasingly become recipients of pharmaceutical company gifts, funding and sponsorship. There has been little discussion in the nursing literature, however, of the ethical and professional implications of nurses' acceptance of such sponsorship.
This article examines ethical issues related to the issue of nurses' accepting benefits from pharmaceutical companies (and other commercial enterprises). It aims to encourage nurses to look critically at the implications of accepting such gifts/sponsorship, or to enter any form of relationship with commercial companies within the health sector, and to stimulate further discussion of this issue within the profession.
Keywords
ethics, pharmaceutical industry, nursing, conflict of interest, nursing standards, sponsorship
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