News & Events

Nurses Top Annual Gallup Honesty, Ethics Poll for 15 Straight Years

CANTON, Mass — For the 15th year in a row, Americans say they trust nurses more than any other profession, according to an annual Gallup survey conducted Dec. 7 – Dec. 11, 2016.

Read the Gallup poll.

“Nurses are proud to have the public’s trust and confidence,” Massachusetts Nurses Association President Donna Kelly-Williams, RN, said. “For 15 years in a row, the American public has considered nurses the nation’s most honest and ethical professionals. We are incredibly grateful for this distinction. It inspires nurses daily as they strive to provide safe and effective care to every patient.”

In the Gallup poll released on Monday, nurses are viewed as having “very high” or “high” ethical and honesty standards by 84 percent of the public, a full 17 points higher than any other profession. Gallup notes that since nurses were added to the survey in 1999, they have topped the list of most trusted professions every year except in 2001, when firefighters were included on a one-time basis, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Patients and their families count on nurses when they are at their moment of greatest vulnerability and need,” Kelly-Williams said. “The public sees how hard nurses work and how seriously they take their responsibility to advocate for safe and effective care. Nurses are the most trusted voice in health care because they fight every day to protect the health of their patients and communities.”