Nurses Voted 'Most Trusted' Profession, Again

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.