When Gallup
asked respondents to rate the honesty and ethical standards of people
in various fields, nurses came in number one with 85 percent of those
asked responding “Very high/high.”
Americans voted nurses the most trusted professionals in America for the
13th time in 14 years in the annual Gallup poll that ranks professions
for their honesty and ethical standards. And nurses are proud of this
professional integrity. “At the end of the day, I always feel honored to
be a nurse,” says Holly of Brigham and Women’s mother-daughter team.
“It’s incredible to be a part of patients’ lives and have them let me in
when they are at their most vulnerable.”
Coming in a significant 10 percent higher than pharmacists, the
next most-trusted profession, and 15 percent higher than medical doctors
and engineers, who both ranked at 70 percent, nurses are the ones we
seem to really trust. (As opposed to car salespeople and members of Congress, who came in last and second-to-last, respectively.)
We have the acclaimed Florence Nightingale to thank for the nurses
who take care of us. In 1860, Nightingale paved the way for professional
nursing with the founding of the Nightingale Training School at St.
Thomas' Hospital in London, the first secular nursing school in the
world. She campaigned tirelessly to improve health standards, while
publishing more than 200 books, reports and pamphlets on hospital
planning and organization — many of which are still widely read today.
Plus, she invented the pie chart!
Numerous studies have shown that patients fare
worse when there is inadequate nurse staffing on a care unit. Problems
can include more complications, poorer health outcomes, less
satisfaction, and greater chance of death. A recent study on nurse
staffing links inadequate personnel with increased patient mortality
Even though more job growth is projected in
nursing than in any other occupation through 2018, the gap between the
supply of nurses and the rising demand for healthcare services continues
to widen. A growing number of hospitals are competing for a small pool
of skilled critical care nurses as an aging population of nurses leaves
the workforce. Recruiters are enticing candidates with signing bonuses,
tuition reimbursement, scholarships, student-loan repayments, and even
finder’s fees to employees who bring in new nurses.
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