Another Year at the Top

It shouldn’t be a surprise that nurses again rank at the top of the most trusted professions list (85% of 1,015 respondents rank nurses’ honesty and ethical standards as “very high.”). Nurses have ranked #1 for 13 of the past 14 years that the Gallup survey has been conducted (in 2001, firefighters were ranked higher than nurses). And it shouldn’t be a surprise that car salespeople rank lowest (8%). Members of Congress also are at the bottom (10%); they’ve never fared well in the 36 years of these ratings, except for 2001 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

These results are from Gallup's November 26-29, 2012 update of the perceived honesty and ethical standards of professions. Survey respondents rated each profession on a five-point honesty and ethical scale ranging from "very high" to "very low."

Pharmacists rank #2 behind nurses in receiving “very high” ratings (75%) and physicians rank third, at 70%. Healthcare providers as a group were perceived to be more honest and have higher ethical standards than HMO Managers and insurance agents. Makes complete sense to me!