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Nurses Voted 'Most Trusted' Profession, Again

 |  By Alexandra Wilson Pecci  
   December 11, 2012

The American public trusts nurses more than any other profession in the country.

According to the annual Gallup poll, 85% of Americans rated nurses' honesty and ethical standards as "very high" or "high," the highest rating for RNs since nurses were first included in the poll in 1999.

Nurses out-ranked pharmacists, doctors, dentists, and psychiatrists. They're viewed as more honest than police officers and members of the clergy. In fact, since RN's first appearance in the ranking, Gallup says that nurses have received the highest ranking each year except 2001, when firefighters ranked first after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

The American Nurses Association uses the high rankings to encourage policymakers to listen to nurses' concerns when making choices regarding healthcare issues.

"This poll consistently shows that people connect with nurses and trust them to do the right thing," ANA President Karen A. Daley, PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN, said in a statement. "Policymakers should do the same as they debate crucial budget decisions that will affect health care quality and access for millions of Americans."

As I read the data, I wondered why nurses are perceived to be so trustworthy. Why do they outrank physicians, whom many see as the final word in our healthcare decisions, whom we trust to prescribe us medicine and even cut us open?

So I took to that most-scientific of platforms, Facebook, and designed a little poll. I asked people in my network to share their own stories about how nurses have affected their lives in a positive way.

I got a huge response, with people posting long and detailed messages about their own experiences with nurses. They used words like "angel" and "hero."

One friend recounted her weeks in the hospital after her daughter was born eight weeks premature. She said she entrusted nurses with the life of her daughter, Paige.

"Nurse Heather helped us "kangaroo" despite the tubes and wires," she told me. "Nurse Sue would keep the lights dark so Paige wouldn't be overstimulated. Nurse Jan would keep the iPod of lullabies playing. Nurse Linda helped Paige latch for the first time."

Another friend said she could "go on forever" about the nurses at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston, where her son was treated for second-degree burns on both his hands.

"He was treated there for six months," she said. "The nurses at Shriners treated us like royalty! Most amazing people! Unmeasurable [sic] admiration for them, especially working with burn victims day in and out ...they left such an impression on me. Truly unsung heroes! I could never do what they do."

One cancer survivor told me about the chemo nurses who became her snack and lunch buddies during her treatment and who she still goes to say hello to each time she visits the hospital for follow-up appointments.

"Chemo nurses are your lifeline, your daily companion, they make your days comfortable with a smile after sitting hooked up to a machine for 6-8 hours," she said. And even though she didn't miss those chemo appointments, "it was sad to say good-bye" to one nurse in particular who became her friend.

And then there was my aunt, who told me about the nurse who massaged my grandmother's hands for an hour as she lay dying. It was a story I hadn't heard until then. When the nurse finished, my grandmother opened her eyes and thanked her.

"The nurse bent down and kissed her on the forehead with such reverence and respect," my aunt said.

Last time I wrote about a topic like this one, I got a lot of positive feedback, but some readers chided me for emphasizing nurses' "soft skills."

"As a professional nurse...it would be nice to be recognized for the training and skills that we bring to health care and not just the 'warm fuzzies,'" one reader said.

Of course, nursing is about more than hand-holding and kisses on the forehead. This column discusses nurses' critical role in improving healthcare outcomes every single week.

But as I ponder this trustworthiness ranking every year, I believe that it's precisely that combination of clinical expertise and "warm and fuzzy" proficiency that makes nurses so trusted and even downright loved.

Nurses appear to be on the patient's side, their advocates and voice when they need one. The same reader who asked to be recognized for her skills said this herself: That it's nurses who inform doctors about changes in a patients' condition.

It's that combination of eagle-eyed medical expertise and compassionate bedside manner that allows nurses provide both top-notch medical care and smaller things that physicians might not have time for but that mean the world to patients.

Like having little lunches after hours of chemo or massaging my grandmother's hands to ease her passage from this world.

Alexandra Wilson Pecci is an editor for HealthLeaders.

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