Just an interesting aside. At my program, we were given Harriet Lane Handbooks by a rep from one of the infant formula companies. Do the people who oppose drug reps consider Carnation Good Start marketing reps and other baby formula reps as "evil" as drug reps? Most of the formulas (milk/soy) seem to have pretty much the same nutrient content with different brand names (not talking about the more specialized formulas), so does it really matter if you take a Harriet Lane from Nestle? I mean, some hospitals have contracts with Coca Cola or Pepsi so you can only get a certain type of soda in the cafeteria. Isn't this kinda the same thing?
Yeah, I'm not really "anti-drug company" or think drug reps are necessarily "evil." I kind of meant "those tricky drug reps" to have a more casual tone...and I definitely get annoyed with people who treat drug reps poorly. So I don't want you to think I'm one of "those" people who think they're better than everyone else.
🙂
That aside, I do sometimes think gifts from drug reps can become excessive and inappropriate. I think that for me, and I would wager just about anyone, would be lying if they said that they absolutely weren't influenced at all, ever, by gifts from drug reps. I guess the problem for me is it's hard for me to draw the line between what's too much....so, I try not to accept anything, if I can possible help it. But, that's just me.
As far as gifts from other sorts of companies, like formula companies, again, I tend not to accept them for similar reasons. I mean, it's something I can buy on my own, so I don't really see the reason to get it from a company trying to get me to sell something for them. True, I probably wouldn't be very influenced, and in fact, would maybe even forget the name of the company. But again, I find it difficult to draw a line between what's OK and what's too much, so I tend to err on the side of accepting nothing.
