Pharmacists Rank High on Honesty, Ethics in Gallup Poll

Pharmacists tied medical doctors for second place in Gallup’s latest honesty and ethics poll, which surveyed Americans’ thoughts on 11 professions in 2014.

Nurses topped the list with 80% of respondents describing them as having very high or high standards of ethics and honesty, while pharmacists and medical doctors followed in tow with a rating of 65%.

The National Community Pharmacists Association issued a statement from President John T. Sherrer, RPh, who said, “Americans place a high degree of faith and confidence in their pharmacists. Congratulations to our country’s community pharmacists on this impressive achievement and the continuation of a long-running trend in trustworthiness.”

“Pharmacists are expertly trained, easily accessible and, as this survey affirms, trusted medication experts,” Sherrer continued in the press release. “As medication experts, they are well situated to play an even larger and evolved role in lowering US health care costs and improving the quality of life for our nation’s citizens.”

In a separate press release, National Association of Chain Drug Stores President and CEO Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE, said, “The survey results reflect the remarkable trust that patients continue to place in their pharmacists, and for strong and important reasons.”

“Pharmacists are highly educated and highly accessible professionals within the healthcare delivery system,” Anderson continued. “They are highly valued in neighborhoods across America, and particularly by those in the greatest need."

Last year, 70% of respondents gave pharmacists high scores in ethics and honesty. While pharmacists’ ratings dropped by a small amount from 2013, Gallup reported that no professions’ ratings improved this year.

Members of Congress received the worst ratings with only 7% of Americans considering them to have very high or high standards, and 61% giving them a very low or low score. Car salespeople did not fare much better; only 8% of people thought of them as highly ethical and honest.

Gallup conducted cellphone and landline interviews in December among a random sample of 805 adults living across all 50 states.