Is there conflict of interest here? (A real RN in an ad)

Nurses General Nursing

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A friend owns a company and they would like to use my image in a national ad campaign for a health supplement (a fortified drink.. basically a vitamin water, nothing like red bull or anything). My question is, I work as an RN on a cardiac floor. The ad will be very respectable (in a parenting magazine) but I'm wondering because they are thinking of portraying me as a nurse, should I mention this ad to my employer? It's doubtful that anyone at work will notice, but I don't want to appear to be hiding anything either.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

I find all these responses amusing in light of the coca cola ad portraying a nurse drinking a coke that everybody here seemed to think was ok in spite of the suggestion that perhaps it was a marketing ploy...........

But we don't know if the Coca Cola nurse was ACTUALLY a nurse.

The OP IS a nurse and that is where the conflict lies.....

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I would say as long as you are not identified as a nurse, it is ok. I know a nurse who moonlights as a model, she's been in lots of ads, but only as a pretty face. Also do not think the employer needs to know - as long as the ad does not identify you as a nurse or an employee of that hospital. If you were moonlighting at McDonalds would they need to know?

Personally, I like your "mom" approach. I'd be uncomfortable "pretending" to be a nurse endorsing any product.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatric, Hospice.

I'm another person here who would be leery of doing such a thing. Since you are a nurse, you have different liability and responsibility to the public than a civilian. I'd be afraid of somewhere, somehow, something bad happening with the medication, and a lawsuit coming up, involving me, the 'nurse' in the ad, who said (implied) this medication was OK to take.

I don't know, I don't think you can ever be too careful. But that's just me ;)

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Specializes in cardiac, ortho, med surg, oncology.
But we don't know if the Coca Cola nurse was ACTUALLY a nurse.

The OP IS a nurse and that is where the conflict lies.....

The nurse in the coca cola ad could just as easily have been as well. It's the whole concept of using a nurse that suggests a product is medically acceptable or approved otherwise why would the first option be to portray the model as a nurse???

I personally think that all medical professionals should think carefully before allowing their profession to be used as a marketing ploy

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
A friend owns a company and they would like to use my image in a national ad campaign for a health supplement (a fortified drink.. basically a vitamin water, nothing like red bull or anything). My question is, I work as an RN on a cardiac floor. The ad will be very respectable (in a parenting magazine) but I'm wondering because they are thinking of portraying me as a nurse, should I mention this ad to my employer? It's doubtful that anyone at work will notice, but I don't want to appear to be hiding anything either.

I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

It wouldn't matter if they were portraying you as a nurse or not.

No different than the models in scrubs catalogs are most likely not medical professionals.

No reason to mention it to your employer....in fact, I would make it a point not to...none of their business.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
I'm another person here who would be leery of doing such a thing. Since you are a nurse, you have different liability and responsibility to the public than a civilian. I'd be afraid of somewhere, somehow, something bad happening with the medication, and a lawsuit coming up, involving me, the 'nurse' in the ad, who said (implied) this medication was OK to take.

I don't know, I don't think you can ever be too careful. But that's just me ;)

That is why, every infommercial you see, that has a physician in the commercial CLEARLY STATES that the commercial is not to be taken as medical advice.

So, I think what you are suggesting wouldn't remotely fly in reality.

Not once in all my years have I ever heard of a medical professional strictly used for promotional purposes, getting personally sued over the product.

Not once.

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Specializes in Behavioral Health, Show Biz.

wow...

where has everyone been?

i go by the name showbizrn

because...

hello. i do both.

some years back (late 1990's, i believe)

there was a big tv ad campaign

for...hmmmmm...i can't recall the name of the hand moisturizer

but the rn/ actors used their names and rn credentials

(yes, the rns used their real names)

and nobody cried a hoot

about conflict of interest or otherwise---

we were too busy scrambling to get hired for the job---

yes---this was a big-time national commercial with residual payments.

read carefully, though, your employer's policy on conflict of interest

just to cover-your-butt.:twocents:

you'd be surprised how that green devil of envy

rears its horn

when a rn's visibilty

transfers from the hospital to the public media:lol2:

go for it!!!

:yeah:

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You need to contact your corporate compliance officer to see if there is any conflict of interest representing this company. You then may have to sign a waiver that you are in no way representing the hospital for your endorsement. While not likely but still possible, one of your patients may recognize you and attempt to hold your hospital liable also if harmed in belief that both are endorsing the product. If that product ever comes into question for effectiveness, false advertisement or deaths, your hospital might not be happy to know you were part of it after the fact. We've all seen the health care professionals who previously endorsed some of the "safe" products scramble to distance themselves when things didn't go well later.

If it was for a nonmedical product that didn't require your credentials, the hospital probably could care less. However, some hospitals also want employees to disclose their other places of employment even if it is just a once a month per diem job.

Even in our hospital ads, billboards and training videos we use actors, not real medical professionals. That is much easier than having employees quit and want a billboard taken down because they are no longer on good terms with that hospital.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
While not likely but still possible, one of your patients may recognize you and attempt to hold your hospital liable also if harmed in belief that both are endorsing the product. If that product ever comes into question for effectiveness, false advertisement or deaths, your hospital might not be happy to know you were part of it after the fact.quote]

There is no way, that I believe, by any stretch of the imagination, that this is remotely, legally possible.

We are W-2 employees. We are not owned or on-contract with the hospital. What we do on our own time is our own business as long as it is legal.

People don't understand what a conflict of interest is. Conflict of interest is working for a competing hospital. Conflict of interest is going out to dinner with the patient's family while the patient is still there.

So what, if someone THINKS that you are endorsing the product...THAT DOES NOT EQUAL LIABLITY.

That is why I challenged someone to come up with ONE example of where a nurse or even a physician, got sued over something like that. Just one...you can stop looking because there hasn't been any.

We are not physicians...we do not prescribe.

Her mere picture in the ad...does NOT follow by her recommendations "as a nurse" to use the product.

I give medications all the time...if they find out 10 years from now that such and such drug is harmful, I don't get sued because I gave it, generally, neither does the physician...the pharmaceutical company does if it was given according to instructions and order.

YOU ARE GOING OVERBOARD PEOPLE!

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Specializes in Psych ICU, addictions.

I don't see it as being a true conflict of interest, either. And unless you're giving your full name and saying "I endorse this product," I don't see it as being an endorsement either. You're just a pretty face that they're using in an advertisement.

Regardless of whether you are going to do the ad with the nurse angle or the soccer mom angle, IMO it never hurts to bounce it by your employer to see if they have any objections.

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People don't understand what a conflict of interest is. Conflict of interest is working for a competing hospital. Conflict of interest is going out to dinner with the patient's family while the patient is still there.

If you read your compliance manual, conflict of interest is working or having any interest in a company that might influence a contract or a purchase. Conflict of interest is going out to dinner with a vendor who is trying to get a contract with your hospital.

If you were to work part time for a pharmaceutical company or an equipment vendor, the hospital might see that as a problem. The reason they normally want to know about employment at other hospitals is conflicts in scheduling and number of hours worked. It is not unheard of for an employee to work an 8 hour shift at one hospital and pull another 12 hours at a neighboring facility. This may even occur several times per week. That is, however, more of a conflict in safety. Unless you are at a top managerial level where you have inside financial information which is not available to the public, you won't be able to affect the competition between hospitals. What inside information you might think you know probably was already published in Hospital Business Week many months ago.

Other companies have successful argued against outside activities that might come back to the employer. Professional associations have also had their say in these things.

But, I am NOT saying the hospital can restrict you from doing something but you may have to follow the proper channels. It is better to find out your hospital's stance before you do something rather than later. It may be as simple as stating you will in no way wear a uniform with your hospital's logo or refer to where you work in the ad.

We are not physicians...we do not prescribe.

True. But, there are also reasons why medical advice is not offered on these forums. Nurses, or those perceived to be nurses, can influence people. If you tell a patient about the Atkin's diet rather than recommending they stick to the one the Dietitian has educated them on, they might believe the nurse who has been at their beside more than the Dietitian who was a one time consult.

Again, in no way did I say anything and everything is a conflict of interest. But, if you do not know your hospital or company's stance on the conditions of your employment, ignorance of the rules probably won't be a good defense even if you got your advice from a quality online anonymous forum.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.
If you read your compliance manual, conflict of interest is working or having any interest in a company that might influence a contract or a purchase. Conflict of interest is going out to dinner with a vendor who is trying to get a contract with your hospital.

If you were to work part time for a pharmaceutical company or an equipment vendor, the hospital might see that as a problem. The reason they normally want to know about employment at other hospitals is conflicts in scheduling and number of hours worked. It is not unheard of for an employee to work an 8 hour shift at one hospital and pull another 12 hours at a neighboring facility. This may even occur several times per week. That is, however, more of a conflict in safety. Unless you are at a top managerial level where you have inside financial information which is not available to the public, you won't be able to affect the competition between hospitals. What inside information you might think you know probably was already published in Hospital Business Week many months ago.

Other companies have successful argued against outside activities that might come back to the employer. Professional associations have also had their say in these things.

But, I am NOT saying the hospital can restrict you from doing something but you may have to follow the proper channels. It is better to find out your hospital's stance before you do something rather than later. It may be as simple as stating you will in no way wear a uniform with your hospital's logo or refer to where you work in the ad.

True. But, there are also reasons why medical advice is not offered on these forums. Nurses, or those perceived to be nurses, can influence people. If you tell a patient about the Atkin's diet rather than recommending they stick to the one the Dietitian has educated them on, they might believe the nurse who has been at their beside more than the Dietitian who was a one time consult.

Again, in no way did I say anything and everything is a conflict of interest. But, if you do not know your hospital or company's stance on the conditions of your employment, ignorance of the rules probably won't be a good defense even if you got your advice from a quality online anonymous forum.

Every company has conflict of interest policies...hospitals are not, by any means, unique.

9 times out of 10, this is an issue with upper management rather than nurses, thus, why the policy exists.

It typically rests with decision makers...not those low on the totum pole with no dog in the race, with rare exception.

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