Two years ago with the new regulation changes in the medical industry I began to disclose in my slides, handouts, articles and this site a full disclosure of conflict of interest
I find that there are so many RN's working for medical companies that have not indicated they are working for those companies. I will not name you but you know who you are.Â
If you work directly for a company or work as a preceptor, consultant, speaker bureau today you must disclose this information.Â
It is time to require this disclosure on this site. I have no problems with commenting on your thoughts or hawking your wares but I think in all fairness you need to idenitify your allegience. It should be a requirement on this site to dislcose!!! I have been disclosing since this site went up.
It is un-ethical not to disclose. I commend Mike B. for disclosing his conflict of interest on his last post. I applaud that kind of honesty and have also considered Mike B. to have the highest integrity.Â
Kathy Kokotis
Bard Access Systems EmployeeÂ
I think that anyone posting on this site should fully identify themselves, both name and affiliations, from vendors and clinicians alike. Anonymous communications are not accepted in other professional forums and they shouldn't be in this one! How can you value any opinion if you don't know where it came from!?!
Dianne Sim RN, VA-BC, CEO; IV Assist, Inc.
I agree that company reps need to be identified as Kathy as indicated. And I do identify where I am and what organization I am from. However, I think we all need to be very cautious when discussing actual patient situations, that we are not breaking patient confidentiality. Patients are very computer and Internet savvy and can find this site - I just searched PICC on Yahoo and although it was 11 "pages" in on the listings, it WAS there. I totally want to continue to post real life situations, but we always think about what we are posting to make sure it doesn't fall under HIPAA regulations. By including our organization, there is a potential for legal problems.
Sarah, maybe I am not correct on this - can the public see the Forum or do they need to be registered?
Wendy Erickson RN
Eau Claire WI