Nurses, Drug Reps, and Viagra Pens

There is an interesting new blog on the Internet that you should go check out. It’s Johnson and Johnson’s new corporate blog, JNJ BTW. I started leaving comments over there a couple of weeks ago, and now I’m getting hits on my own blog from J&J. I hope some of my new readers are drug reps. I want to help them learn how to get along with hospital staff so they do not suffer their own death at the hands of a nurse.

Nurses have a love-hate relationship with drug reps. There are days when we don't have time to listen their spiel, and they always seem to come to the unit during the most inopportune times. Seasoned reps know that the fastest way to a nurse’s heart is through his or her stomach. Reps who excel at their job bring in deli food when nurses are trying to get off of the unit for lunch. Reps who haven’t learned this lesson arrive during mealtime empty handed; these reps are doomed. I once refused to talk to a rep during an evening shift until he brought pizza to the unit. He was a new rep, and he thought I was kidding until I gave him directions to get to our favorite pizzeria and then I showed him the elevator. He came back to the unit an hour later with pizza and flowers for the staff. Nice touch.


Nurses also demand pens and other goodies when drug reps come calling. I don’t know why for sure, but I think it’s because we know that the drug companies are giving things to the doctors, so we want some stuff, too. Nurses covet Viagra pens, so if you are a Pfizer drug rep, you better have a lot of those pens in your pocket when you walk onto a nursing unit. I, however, think Risperdal popcorn is the best goodie under the sun. It is easy to cook, contains no active drug ingredients, and it is a quick, healthy snack when nurses don’t have time to go off the unit to eat. I know that Ed Silverman from Pharmalot wrote a salty review about the product, no pun intended, but I love the popcorn, and so do other nurses who have been forced to work a double shift without getting a break.



My sincerest thanks go out to Johnson and Johnson for making Risperdal popcorn, and for their other groundbreaking work in developing new goodies for nurses who love to eat.