Nurses are once again the most trusted profession in America...

Gallup released the results of their annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions survey this past January, and once again nursing ranked as the most trusted profession in America.  The poll was conducted December 2-18, 2024 and asked U.S. adults which professions that they thought were the most honest and ethical.  Three out of four Americans consider nurses highly honest and ethical (76%), making nurses once again the most trusted profession.  As I've mentioned in previous posts (see "Annual Gallup survey on honesty and ethics among professionals" and "Nurses are first...again!"), nurses have earned the highest rating every year since Gallup added them to their annual survey in 1999, except for one year, when firefighters were rated highest in the 2001 survey in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center.  

Grade-school teachers ranked second (61% of U.S. adults rated them high or very high on honesty and ethics), while military officers, pharmacists, and medical doctors also earned high or very high trust from the majority of Americans.  It's important to note that the Gallup organization has measured honesty and ethics among the different professions since 1976.  While the list of professions included in the survey has changed over the years, the list has remained fairly consistent since 1999, which was the year that the nursing profession was first added to the list.

What's concerning is that the overall average of very high/high honest and ethics ratings among the most consistently surveyed group of professions has declined over the years, from a high of around 43% in 2001 to a low of 30% in 2024.  Even trust in the nursing profession has decreased by approximately 6 percentage points during this same period of time.  The trust decline in the professions mirrors that of the long-term decline in the general public's confidence and trust in U.S. institutions.  We are becoming a less trusting society as a whole (see a new report from earlier this month by the Pew Research Center on "American's Trust in One Another").

I want to save a discussion on the decline in trust, both for professions and for society in general, for another post.  Instead, to finish off today's post, I want to offer an explanation for why I think nursing remains the most trusted profession overall.  Perhaps most importantly, nurses spend a lot of time with patients and family members.  Because they spend so much of their day at the bedside, they have the opportunity to get to know their patients.  They are true advocates for their patients, and they are always there to answer questions or help interpret a doctor's instructions or care plans.  They also educate their patients and families about how to manage health conditions and promote health.  Nurses are often the first point of contact for patients (either in the hospital or clinic setting) and the face of healthcare in any health care setting.  Nurses' unwavering commitment to patient care, coupled with their compassionate nature and high ethical standards, makes them the most trusted profession every year!