Americans view healthcare professionals as more trustworthy than most other professionals, according to annual Gallup survey results released Monday.
A telephone survey of a random sample of 1,028 adults earlier this month showed that 84 percent of respondents rated nurses as having very high or high honesty and ethical standards, followed by pharmacists (67 percent) and medical doctors (65 percent). Engineers were tied with doctors, while dentists followed, with 59 percent of respondents saying they have high or very high honesty standards.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents gave police officers high ratings, but confidence in professionals begins to drop off after that. Well under half of respondents found professionals such as bankers, journalists, lawyers and HMO managers to be highly honest and ethical.
According to Gallup, nurses have topped the list every year but one since the survey began including them in 1999.
