I work at a hospital, and today had a run in with our director, and need some guidance. During a monthly meeting today our focused topic was how to help staff to better support breastfeeding. This meeting included three other people, including one other lactation consultant and a clinical coordinator. Two days before this meeting, the formula company representatives came in with a truckload of food and a Powerpoint presentation on the benefits of DHA supplementation (I saw the handouts and a paper that said Mead Johnson paid over $2000 for this talk, including a $500 honorarium for the speaker). I did not attend, as I never want to align myself with these marketers.
On my agenda of ideas and items of discussion, I put down that I wanted to discuss the hazards of allowing formula company reps onto our floors - if we are trying to get staff to participate more in breastfeeding support for our patients, this undermines our efforts. I am sure all of you on this list can get an idea of what I said, i.e. the marketing code, the dangers of aligning myself as a professional LC with formula company reps, why the DHA info was skewed, etc.
To make a VERY long story short, this evidently opened up a can of worms that I wasn't expecting. My boss became extremely defensive and angry, accused me of being a "Nazi", and told me that not only does she expect the LCs to be supportive of the Mead Johnson reps coming in with their education, that she expects me to attend all of the lectures as part of my job.
Please let me know what you think of this situation - I am really upset and do not want to attend these info sessions. In fact, I will refuse. Do I have any recourse on this issue with the code of ethics? This is the worst day I have ever had as an LC, and I've been doing this for over 10 years.
Thanks,
Brenda P., BS, IBCLC
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