For 15th Consecutive Year, Nurses Rank #1 as Most Trusted Profession

Nurses rank as most trusted profession for 15th straight year

McKnight’s News | December 20, 2016

Photo credit: ANA The American Nurse

According to Gallup’s annual poll about honesty and ethical standards among various fields, many Americans trust their healthcare providers to be honest and ethical.

Medical professionals took the top 3 spots of the annual poll results. At the very top of the results – by a wide margin – nurses rank first place, with an overwhelming 84% of respondents rating nurses’ honesty and ethical standards as high or very high. Pharmacists came in second on the list with a 67% rating, while medical doctors rank third with a 65% positive rating.

Results of the poll also revealed that Americans’ ratings for clergy members, journalists, and teachers have fallen from last year, with over 50% of those polled saying they would rate these professions as average or very low/low in honesty and ethical standards. Members of congress rank the lowest on the list, with 59% of Americans rating their honesty and ethical standards as low or very low.

In 2001, firefighters were ranked at the top of that year’s annual poll, following the heroism of early-responders in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. With the exception of 2001, nurses have topped the list every year since 1999. The poll validates the trust nurses in the field have developed between themselves and the patients they serve.

“Based on this survey, no other profession is held in as high regard by the public,” says American Nurses Association President Pamela Cipriano, PhD, RN. “And given nursing’s frontline perspective on healthcare delivery, we offer a point of view that is unmatched.”

Dawn Cook has been a registered nurse for over 30 years. Although her career path has taken her outside the clinical setting, her background and decades of experience enable her to bring valuable knowledge to the medical-legal field. She has served attorneys and law firms with her expertise in reasonableness of past bills reports, life care plans, rebuttals, medical bill reviews and future medical cost projections. Her clients, too, can attest to her honesty, high ethical standards, and overall trustworthiness.