Discussion: NURS 3100 Trusted Profession
Discussion: NURS 3100 Trusted Profession
Discussion: NURS 3100 Trusted Profession
NURS3100 Issues/Trends in Nursing
Week 2 Discussion
The Most
Trusted Profession
Nurses are
the most honest and ethical professionals in America, according to Gallup polls
for more than 12 years in a row. In 2014, 80 percent of Americans said that
nurses have “very high” or “high” standards of honesty and
ethics, compared with 7% and 8% ratings, respectively, for members of Congress
and salespeople. According to Pamela Cipiriano, President of the 35th American
Nurses Association (ANA) (2015, March 01), “The public places its faith in
nurses to practice ethically.”
A patient’s
health, autonomy, and even life or death can be affected by a nurse’s decisions
and actions. The IOM’s recommendation to increase the role of nursing in both present
and future health care practice underscores the nexus between the decisions and
actions of nurses and the health and outcomes of the patients cared for by
nurses.
The
critical role of nurses in present and future health care makes it imperative
that nurses be knowledgeable about the ANA’s Code of Ethics with Interpretive
Statements (2015) (the “Code”). As the cornerstone document of the nursing
profession, the Code reflects the evolution of health care and considers the
most current ethical challenges nurses face in practice. The Codeupholds the
best interests of patients, families, and communities.
Nurses are consistently rated higher in honesty and ethics than all other professions that Gallup asks about, by a wide margin. Medical professions in general rate highly in Americans’ assessments of honesty and ethics, with at least six in 10 U.S. adults saying medical doctors, pharmacists and dentists have high levels of these virtues. The only nonmedical profession that Americans now hold in a similar level of esteem is engineers, with 66% saying individuals in this field have high levels of honesty and ethics.
Americans’ high regard for healthcare professionals contrasts sharply with their assessments of stockbrokers, advertising professionals, insurance salespeople, senators, members of Congress and car salespeople — all of which garner less than 20% of U.S. adults saying they have high levels of honesty and ethics.
The public’s low levels of belief in the honesty and ethical standards of senators and members of Congress may be a contributing factor in poor job approval ratings for the legislature. No more than 30% of Americans have approved of Congress in the past 10 years.
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