In its Annual Honesty & Ethics of Professions Survey this year, Gallup has placed the winner as, for the seventh straight year,  nursing. In its latest results released Nov 24th,  84% of Americans surveyed gave a high or very high rating for nurses as the most honest and ethical profession.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise, for all the reasons I mentioned in my earlier posting- “Nursing – the ‘In’ Profession”. Long derided by medical doctors as ‘glorified hand-maidens’ and the subject of countless bawdy humour, the nursing profession has lately regained a lot of prestige and has been hailed as one of the ‘in’ professions, what with the acute shortage worldwide and a more-defined career pathway  which can lead one up to  becoming a hospital CEO even.

And who are at the bottom of the list? Car salesmen. 55% said they have low or very low ethics. No other profession comes close to this level of disparagement. This is not a new finding; car salesmen have been at the bottom every year they have been included in the list, except for the three occasions when telemarketers were included and essentially tied car salesmen for that unwelcome distinction. How many times have you heard this : “Hey,buddy, you look like a nice guy. I’m here as your partner in making this important decision!”

Here’s the ranking of the other professions: