Nurse Practitioners Influenced by Drug Marketing
Pharmaceutical Advertising Creates Conflicts of Interest for FNPs
Mar 14, 2009
The impact of drug marketing on doctors' prescriptions has long been noted, but the effect on nurse practitioners has never been studied, until now. New research published by the U.K. Journal of Advanced Nursing suggests that nursing practitioners may be influenced by pharmaceutical marketing without being aware of the effect it has on their treatment of patients and the prescriptions they write.
Study Findings: What Nurses Believe About Drug Marketing
According to a study headed by family nurse practitioner Nancy Crigger, only 5% of nurses believe that their drug prescribing is affected by pharmaceutical reps, while 17% will admit to being influenced by drug company marketing.
The majority of the study's 84 respondents (69%) said they were "sometimes" affected by information from drug reps. Only 1% would admit to being influenced by promotional items offered by pharma companies, although 49% considered educational gifts – such as conferences and sponsored dinners – appropriate, while non-educational gifts like travel and happy hour bonuses were inappropriate, according to 47% of family nurse practitioners (FNPs) surveyed.
Despite misgivings, 62% of nursing practitioners accepted free drug samples, 50% received educational material, 41% office supplies and 30% office equipment.
Is Incentive Marketing Ethical in Medical Care?
Providing the best care and treatment to patients is first and foremost in the minds of most nurse practitioners. But the priority of drug companies is, and always has been, sales. How well do nurses juggle the conflict of interest created by marketing materials and promotions from drug companies?
Overall, says Crigger, the study "showed low awareness of how marketing by pharmaceutical companies affects clinical decisions and creates conflicts of interest." As many as 50% of nurse practitioners said that events organized by drug companies were mostly educational, while 15% found them promotional in nature.
51% of FNPs were in agreement with bonuses and gifts perceived to have a direct benefit to patients, such as training programs and free drug samples, but 48% agreed - or were ambivalent or neutral - about gifts that had no obvious benefit to patients.
What's more, only 41% of nurse practitioners said they had prior training that covered the conflicts of interest created by drug marketing.
“Our study suggests that pharmaceutical marketing is widespread among FNPs and that FNPs fail to recognise how they are being influenced by this practice," says Crigger. “It points to the need for all FNPs to evaluate their personal attitudes and practices concerning the ethical appropriateness of accepting gifts, meals, educational programs and trips from pharmaceutical companies."
Other Study Findings: How Accurate is Drug Advertising?
Another recent study co-authored by Dartmouth Medical School associate professor of medicine Steven Woloshin found that the information found on drug packaging is not really helpful to consumers – or practitioners – seeking to make informed drug choices.
“They get exposed to billions of dollars of ads, but the ads don’t tell them the most fundamental information they need,” said Woloshin. Current advertising, he went on to say, "can be very misleading," reinforcing Crigger's requests for more research and for nurse practitioners to consciously avoid these kinds of conflicts of interest.
Sources
NewsInferno.com, "Nurse Practitioners Affected by Drug Marketing," March 11, 2009.
ScienceDaily.com, "Nurse Practitioners Don't Realize How Much Their Prescribing is Being Influenced by Drug Marketing," March 10, 2009.
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