Nurses have again reached the top spot in Gallup’s annual Most Honest and Ethical Professions Poll. It’s the 21st year in a row Americans have ranked the profession highest for its ethics, the company reports.
The latest findings are from a poll conducted between Nov. 9 and Dec. 2, 2022. Fully 79% of respondents said that nurses have “very high” or “high” honesty and ethical standards. Medical doctors ranked second, at 62%, and pharmacists ranked third, at 58%.
A dip from early pandemic ranking
Medical professionals typically rate highly in Americans’ assessments of honesty and ethics, but responses, of course, vary with current circumstances.
Although nurses’ 2022 ranking is well above that of the other 17 professions rated, it is notably lower than the highest rating recorded for 2020, as reported by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News. That year, 85% of poll respondents tipped their hat to nurses, likely a reflection of pandemic-era appreciation, when nurses were “on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic and their ethics ratings soared,” Gallup stated.
The 2019 nurse numbers were similarly high, according to McKnight’s coverage. In 2022, by contrast, the profession’s rating is at its lowest point since 2004. Doctors and pharmacists rated below their prepandemic polling levels as well, Gallup reported.
‘Incredible nurses’
The 2022 recognition “belongs to America’s 4.4 million incredible nurses,” said Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, PhD, MBA, RN, president of the American Nurses Association, in response to the latest Gallup report. “For more than two decades now, the nation has recognized the vital role you play in keeping our friends, families, and communities safe and healthy, regardless of the setting you work in or the challenges you might face,” she said.
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