Acceptance Of Gifts Research Articles

Gifts to a Science Academic Librarian

ABSTRACT Gifts, by their altruistic nature, perfectly fit into the environment of universities and academic libraries. As a university's community and general public continue to donate materials, libraries accept donations willingly, both in-kind and monetary. Eight steps of gift processing are listed in the paper. Positive and negative aspects of gift acceptance are discussed. Gifts bring value for academic libraries. Gifts can be considered additional routes to contribute to library collections without direct purchases, options to add money to the library budget, and the cement of social relationships. But, unfortunately, large donations are time-consuming, labor-intensive and costly to process. Great amounts of staff time and processing space are two main negative aspects that cause concern and put the value of gift acceptance under consideration by librarians. Some strategies in handling gifts are recommended. To be effective, academic science librarians need to approach gifts as an investment. Librar...

Arzte - Opfer oder Forderer der Korruption?

According to the media the recent physician bribery scandal in Germany draws ever further sets. The public prosecutor determines against hospital physicians and coworkers of a pharmaceutical firm. The suspicion: Physicians were recompensed for using up medicines particularly with pleasure trips. Which is qualified in Germany regularly as bribery and advantage grant as well as aid for tax evasion, is punishable in Austria as unfaithfulness, gift acceptance as well as bribery. The following contribution lights up--from Austrian view--the criminal page of the narrow burr between permitted sponsoring and undue corruption in the medicine. Bribery is globally punishable in Austria. Allowances to physicians can be for the payee in particular gift acceptance (section 153a StGB) or gift acceptance by leading employees of a public enterprise (section 305 StGB), for the giver in particular bribery (section 307 StGB). Occasional allowances, which are not located in connection to a concrete business, but only promoted the sympathetic consideration of the recipient, are not usually punishable. The punishing frameworks for offensces reach up to three years imprisonment. In addition still the absorption of enriching comes (section 20 StGB).

Common issues in medical professionalism: room to grow

Purpose: Much of the respect and trust that society grants to physicians is based on the expectation of upholding professional values. We performed this study to assess responses to common challenges to medical professionalism and to ascertain physician satisfaction with training in professionalism. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire containing six challenges to professionalism (acceptance of gifts, conflict of interest, confidentiality, physician impairment, sexual harassment, and honesty) with multiple-choice responses was mailed to 528 medical students and 779 house officers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and to 900 randomly selected Colorado physicians. Information about previous exposure to the issue depicted in the scenarios and satisfaction with, and site of, previous education in medical professionalism was obtained. An independent panel selected the best or acceptable answers to the challenges. Results: In all, 961 evaluable responses were received. More than 40% of physicians reported experience with four of the six challenges. The frequency of the best or acceptable answers to the six scenarios ranged from 12% to 86%. Best or acceptable responses were more common in physicians than in house officers, and in house officers than in medical students ( P <0.001). Practice setting and specialty type had only modest effects. The physician impairment scenario was the most challenging: Only 12% of physicians provided the best answer. Most (73%) respondents reported having 10 or fewer hours of formal course work in professionalism, and many (40%) were dissatisfied with their training in professionalism. Conclusions: While everyday challenges to professionalism are commonly encountered by trainees and practicing physicians, many practitioners are dissatisfied with their training in this area and were unable to provide an acceptable answer to these challenges.

Perceptions of proper ethical conduct of male and female Russian managers

This study examined the impact of gender on perceptions of various business practices by male and female Russian managers. Female managers considered various activities such as doing personal business on company time, falsifying time/quality/quantity reports, padding an expense account more than 10 percent, calling in sick to take a day off, and pilfering organization materials and supplies more unethical than male managers. Female managers also perceived the acceptance of gifts and favors in exchange for preferential treatment more unethical than male managers.

Reducing Gift Anxiety Through Carefully Worded Gift Policies

ABSTRACT Librarians need clearly worded gift policies to control resources expended on handling gifts in kind and to govern relations between the donor and the library. Gifts policies help libraries solicit beneficial materials while reducing the quantity of unwanted items. They serve two purposes: setting forth the very detailed procedures governing gift acceptance and processing for the library's employees, and presenting the library's gift acceptance philosophy to those whom the library serves. Carefully-worded documents avoid misunderstanding between donor and library and relieve personnel of the difficult task of explaining policies verbally to each potential donor. The author of this article describes his experience developing a policy outline which provides a skeleton for anyone writing a gifts policy.

Effects of an educational intervention on residents' knowledge and attitudes toward interactions with pharmaceutical representatives.

To assess primary care resident and faculty knowledge and attitudes concerning interactions between physicians and pharmaceutical representatives (PRs) and to measure changes in residents' knowledge and attitudes after an educational intervention, we conducted preintervention and postintervention surveys with a causal-comparative group in a university-based primary care residency program. All primary care internal medicine and internal medicine-pediatrics residents and faculty were given the voluntary survey. In general, residents and faculty demonstrated similar responses for the preintervention survey. Differences between faculty and resident opinions were seen in two areas. Faculty were more likely than residents to believe that PRs sometimes use unethical marketing practices (p < .05) and that the amount of contact with PRs in the outpatient clinic is excessive (p < .01). The postintervention survey of residents demonstrated significant differences between the control and intervention groups for three attitude scales. After the intervention, residents showed an increased belief that PRs may use unethical marketing practices (p < .01), that marketing gifts with no patient benefit may be inappropriate (p = .05), and that other physicians' prescribing patterns could be negatively influenced through the acceptance of gifts (p < .05). A brief educational intervention can change resident attitudes concerning physician interactions with PRs.

Managers' Perception of Proper Ethical Conduct: The Effect of Sex, Age, and Level of Education

This study examined the impact of sex, age, and level of education on the perception of various business practices by managers of a large non-profit organization. Female managers perceived the acceptance of gifts and favors in exchange for preferential treatment significantly more unethical than male managers. Older managers (40 plus) perceived five practices significantly more unethical than younger managers (giving gifts/favors in exchange for preferential treatment, divulging confidential information, concealing ones error, falsifying reports, and calling in sick to take a day off). The practice of padding expense account by over 10% was reported to be significantly more unethical by managers with a graduate degree.

Patient perceptions of physician acceptance of gifts from the pharmaceutical industry

To examine patient perceptions of professional appropriateness and the potential impact on health care of physician acceptance of gifts from the pharmaceutical industry. A random-digit dialing telephone survey. A sample of 649 adults (> or = 18 years old) living in Kentucky. Patient awareness of office-use gifts (eg, pens, notepads) and personal gifts to physicians from the pharmaceutical industry, patient exposure to office-use gifts, and attitudes toward physician acceptance of both office-use and personal gifts. The survey had a response rate of 55%. Eighty-two percent of the respondents were aware that physicians received office-use gifts, while 32% were aware that physicians received personal gifts. Seventy-five percent reported receiving free samples of medication from their physicians. Compared with office-use gifts, more respondents believed that personal gifts to physicians have a negative effect on both health care cost (42% vs 26%) and quality (23% vs 13%). After controlling for demographic variables, as well as awareness and exposure to physician gifts, individuals with at least a high school education were 2.4 times as likely to believe that personal gifts have a negative effect on the cost of health care and 2.3 times as likely to believe that personal gifts would have a negative effect on the quality of health care. These results suggest that the public is generally uninformed about personal gifts from pharmaceutical companies to physicians. If public perception regarding the objectivity of the medical profession is to serve as a guide, these findings suggest a reevaluation may be in order for guidelines regarding physician acceptance of gifts from the pharmaceutical industry.

The effect on resident attitudes of regulatory policies regarding pharmaceutical representative activities

To determine the effect on resident attitudes of policies regarding pharmaceutical representative interactions with residents. Cross-sectional survey. National sample of U.S. family medicine residencies. Three hundred seventy-eight residents from 14 randomly selected programs. Seven programs had written policies and restrictions (restricted programs), and seven had no such restriction or guideline (free programs). The authors assessed resident attitudes regarding the perception of benefit from pharmaceutical representative activities, the usefulness of various sources of drug information, and the appropriateness of accepting gifts from a pharmaceutical representative. There were 265/378 respondents (70% response rate). Residents from restricted programs reported fewer benefits from pharmaceutical representative interactions and were less likely to feel that acceptance of gifts was appropriate. The amount of exposure to pharmaceutical representatives was positively correlated with perceived benefit and negatively correlated with ratings of appropriateness of gift acceptance. Regulatory policies can influence resident attitudes and perceptions. Training programs should develop written policies to help guide resident-pharmaceutical representative interactions.

Physicians' Interactions with Pharmaceutical Companies

In Reply.— In my essay1 I suggested that the acceptance of gifts from pharmaceutical companies violates a duty of justice because gifts represent resources inappropriately taken from patients through the added costs of the drugs that they buy. Dr Procopio raises the larger question of how other types of promotional activities increase the cost of drugs in particular and medical care in general. His letter makes clear, however, that the contribution of an activity such as the distribution of samples to the cost of care is difficult to determine because several different purposes are served.

The Ethics of Accepting Gifts from Pharmaceutical Companies

How physicians respond to the promotional activities of the pharmaceutical industry is the subject of ongoing debate and controversy. This paper postulates that the acceptance of gifts in virtually any form violates fundamental duties of the physician of nonmaleficence, fidelity, justice, and self-improvement. The medical community must articulate this position clearly, and it should act accordingly.