Are healthcare providers apathetic and out of touch with their patients' needs? Not according to Gallup's "Honesty/Ethics in Professions" poll*. Recent polling shows that the American public holds healthcare providers in high esteem, occupying four of the top 10 most highly rated professions.
Nurses, Pharmacists, Medical Doctors and Dentists All Score Highly
In November 2001, Gallup asked American adults to rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in 23 different fields as "very high," "high," "average," "low" or "very low." Each profession that appeared in the top 10 received ratings of "very high" or "high" from more than 50% of respondents. Scoring within the top 10 were nurses at 84% (second only to firefighters, who received "very high" or "high" ratings from 90% of respondents), pharmacists (in fifth place at 68%), medical doctors (sixth at 66%), and dentists (in 10th place at 56%).
Public esteem for nurses has remained extremely high since Gallup began measuring it in 1999. Nurses ranked as the No. 1 profession in both 1999 (73%) and 2000 (79%) polls and ranked second only to firefighters in November 2001. Pharmacists also maintain a consistently high evaluation, scoring 59% or above since first measured in 1981. From 1988 to 1998, pharmacists were consistently the top-ranked profession, only to be supplanted by nurses when that profession was added to the list in 1999.
Though medical doctors are ranked lower at sixth place, their rating has increased each year since 1996. A 2001 Harris Interactive poll on the same topic also ranked doctors highly, with an 84% trust rating -- slightly lower than priests (90%) and teachers (88%) and ahead of the President (79%).
*Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,025 U.S. adults, age 18 and older, conducted Nov. 26-27, 2001. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is +/-3 percentage points.