Nurses Rank #1 in Honesty and Ethics

The results from this year’s Gallup Honesty and Ethics poll were announced just before Thanksgiving and for the seventh year in a row, and eight of the nine polls since they were added, nurses were chosen as the winner. Of the 1,010 adults age 18 years and older who participated in the phone interviews, Gallup found that 84% of Americans rated nurses’ “honesty and ethics standards as either ‘high’ or ‘very high,’ easily topping the survey.” The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) said that the survey results reiterate the bond nurses have with the public and how they have “a responsibility to continue to advocate on behalf of the public interest.”

Geri Jenkins, RN, CAN/NNOC co-president, said, “We view our relationship with patients and communities as a sacred trust, and an obligation to advocate relentlessly for patient safety and public health at the bedside, and in the public arena.”

Top five careers in Gallup’s Honesty and Ethics poll:

1. Nurses (84%)

2. Pharmacists (70%)

3. High school teachers (65%)

4. Medical doctors (64%)

5. Policemen (56%)

Jenkins also said how important it is that nurses fight to make sure their patients receive the care they need “in the face of an often uncaring medical system where profits and revenues too often interfere with care delivery.”