Andrea has described an all too familiar scene of nurses giving out formula
containing discharge bags against medical advice and with the cavalier attitude
that they cause no harm. Evidence says otherwise. HIPAA defines giving out
those bags as MARKETING! Instead of trying to educate the nurses check with your
corporate compliance department, ethics committee, risk management
department, and quality improvement department to see if these gifts comply with ethical
behavior. Ask what other unit markets products to their patients whose use
has the potential to result in poor health outcomes for patients.

Commercial discharge bags result in the absence of exclusive breastfeeding at
all times measured between 0-6 months. Discharge bags result in WIC mothers
being 7 times less likely to be breastfeeding at 7-10 days. Ask the nurses if
they understand the consequences of their behavior. Discharge bags are provided
for one purpose-to cause breastfeeding mothers to supplement, reduce their
milk supply, and purchase formula. This is one of a number of marketing tools
and the nurses are being used by the companies to peddle their products. Nurses
are a means to an end and are viewed as targets themselves who need to be
sucked up to, so to speak, by the formula salesmen so that the professional nurse
is turned into nothing more than an object that if "serviced" properly will
function like another salesman.

Maybe some people have such a low self esteem that they fall for the
attention given to them by salespeople who are motivated by dollar signs rather than
sincerity.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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