Results of Gallup's latest poll on honesty and ethics by profession are in, and for the eighth consecutive year, nurses top the list by a definitive margin.
The poll, conducted Dec. 8-10, 2006, rated 23 occupations, including seven health care professions, with regard to their honesty and ethics. Poll respondents could choose from one of four options when assessing each profession's honesty/ethics: "very high," "high," "average" and "very low/low."
The majority of the health professions surveyed ranked high on the list: Druggists or pharmacists came in second, with 73% of respondents rating them "very high" or "high," followed by veterinarians (71%), medical doctors (69%), and dentists (62%). Among non-health-related occupations, engineers received the best ethics rating (61%), followed by college teachers (58%), clergy (58%) and policemen (54%).
If there's any remotely encouraging news - if you can call it that - about the latest Gallup poll, it's that the majority of those polled were fairly neutral when considering chiropractic ethics/honesty. Nearly 50 percent voted an "average" response, while only 10 percent voted "very low" or "low." Chiropractors did rank well ahead of 11 occupations rated in the poll; although 11 have had their professional eithics questioned in the past:
- journalists (26% received a "very high" or "high" ethics rating);
- state governors (22%);
- business executives (18%);
- lawyers (18%);
- stockbrokers (17%);
- senators (15%);
- congressmen (14%);
- insurance salesmen (13%);
- HMO managers (12%);
- advertising practitioners (11%);
- car salesmen (7%).
Poll results are based on telephone interviews with 1,009 U.S. adults, with a maximum margin of sampling error of ± 3 percentage points.