Avoiding Conflict of Interest A Challenge for Leaders in All Professions

摘要

We live in a world where consumers have become increasingly skeptical about hidden agendas on the part of professional organizations, big business, and government agencies. As a result, there is a need for dietitians, food service directors, dieteticeducators, and other leaders in our field to avoid even the slightest appearance of impropriety. This is particularly important today because of the increase in relationships such as "partnerships" and "alliances" that are being established by health care providers, professional organizations, and industry that tie them together in nontraditional ways. When professionals avoid conflicts of interest, this not only helps them to achieve a high level of public trust but also enables them to be viewed as true professionals in the eyes of other members of the health care team. Ethical behavior on the part of all employees in an organization is also expected by administrators, so our job security can be jeopardized if we fail to walk the straight and narrowpath. In addition, unethical practices can lead to lawsuits against individual practitioners and threaten the financial stability of the organizations these individuals represent.