SILVER SPRING, MD - For the 11th year, nurses were voted the most trusted profession in America in Gallup's annual survey that ranks professions for their honesty and ethical standards. Eighty-one percent of Americans believe nurses’ honesty and ethical standards are either "high" or "very high."
"It’s extremely gratifying to know that the public continues to hold the profession in such high esteem,” remarked ANA President Karen J. Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN. "The public’s high regard for the profession, coupled with nurses’ education and skills, makes nurses well positioned to play a major role in the transformation of the nation’s health care system.”
Both the Accountable Care Act and the Institute of Medicine’s recently released report on the Future of Nursing call for a larger role for nurses in providing patient-centered care in a reformed health care system.
Since being included in the Gallup poll in 1999, nurses have received the highest ranking every year except in 2001, when fire fighters received top honors. Results were based on telephone interviews with more than 1,000 adults.
