Do you believe that nurses are honest professionals? Before you share your thoughts, you just have to go through this piece. You see, nurses were ranked the most trusted profession in 2017, according to the annual Gallup poll on honesty and ethical standards, AONE reports. They have topped the list of 22 professions for the past 16 years. Most Americans polled (82 percent) described nurses’ ethics as high or very high.
Other Professionals in the Race
Gallup has measured the public's views of the honesty and ethical standards of a variety of occupations since 1976. While the list changes from year to year, some professions have been included consistently over the past four decades. The list of professions included in 2017 was:
Details of the Report
Well, the results of this all-important Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted Dec. 4-11, 2017, with a random sample of 1,049 adults aged 18 and older. Lest we forget, all the participants live in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 70% cellphone respondents and 30% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
Conclusion: Result
More than four in five Americans (84%) again rate the honesty and ethical standards of nurses as "very high" or "high," earning them the top spot among a diverse list of professions for the 17th consecutive year. At the same time, members of Congress are again held in the lowest esteem as nearly 58% of Americans say they have "low" or "very low" ethical standards. Telemarketers join members of Congress as having a majority of low/very low ratings.
Majorities of Americans also rate four other professions as having "high" or "very high" honesty and ethical standards in the Dec. 3-12 poll: medical doctors (67%), pharmacists (66%), high school teachers (60%) and police officers (54%). Indeed, healthcare workers, including nurses, medical doctors and pharmacists, continue to earn the highest ratings from Americans for their honesty and ethical standards.
Reference
Gallup Survey Report.