Here’s a headline worth shouting from the rooftops: Nurses Top Honesty and Ethics List for 11th Year
Nurses continue to outrank other professions in Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics survey. Eighty-one percent of Americans say nurses have “very high” or “high” honesty and ethical standards, a significantly greater percentage than for the next-highest-rated professions, military officers and pharmacists….
Interestingly, the high numbers (and top ranking) for nurses is essentially unchanged over the last several years. Why do nurses consistently rank so highly? The folks at Gallup speculate as follows:
The consistently most positively rated professions, including nurses and pharmacists, have generally been able to avoid widespread scandals and, as such, Americans continue to hold them in the highest regard.
What do you think?
The Nursing Ethics Blog 
Hello Dr. MacDonald,
Hurray! I am proud to be a nurse!
My name is May Tao and I am studying in the Masters of Nursing at Trinity Western University. My professor asked us to read your blog, thinking critically of the issues and providing comments and feedback.
I am delighted to know that the American community ranked nurses number one as the most honest profession. I think there would be a similar result in Canada. As Morrison (2011) mentioned, truth-telling is a crucial characteristic in health care organizations and the profession.
Despite the moral distress that we experience in our day to day practice, we as nurses treat the characteristic of truth-telling as the prime virtue to possess in the profession. It is also embedded under the fifth provision of the American (ANA) Code of Ethics for Nurses as the responsibility to preserve integrity. In Canada, our Code of Ethics for Registered Nurses from the Canadian Nurses Association also stated that nurses do not engage in any form of lying. Nurses are obliged to be truthful not only in their professional life but also in their personal life.
Hardingham (2004) also emphasized a pivotal factor in building integrity is to create a moral community as an environment to practice ethically. As a moral agent and leader, I would urge all the health care organizations to provide an open and safe space and time for nurses to express their moral issues. By providing excellent care with integrity to our clients and our communities, we would continue to shine and honor our nursing profession.
References
American Nurses Association. (2010). Code of ethics for nurses. Washington, DC: Author.
Canadian Nurses Association. (2008). Code of ethics for Registered Nurses. Ottawa, ON: Author.
Hardingham, L. (2004). Integrity and moral residue: Nurses as participants in a moral community. Nursing Philosophy (5)2: 127–134.
Doi: 10.1111/j.1466-769X.2004.00160.x
Morrison, E. (2011). Ethics in Health Administration: A practical approach for decision makers. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Barrlett Publisher.