Janet CollinsJudging By Profession
June 12th 2009 07:31
Can our ethics, honesty or even trustworthiness be reflected in our profession? It seems so because if we are to rate a person’s honesty by their profession then Australians put nurses way ahead of the rest.
In the Roy Morgan Image of Professions Annual Survey, Australians rated nurses once again as the most ethical and honest professionals followed in second place by pharmacists, in third place by doctors and then school teachers and dentists respectively to make up the top five.
The nursing profession has rated number one since first being included in the list in 1994. In 2007, 91 per cent rated them as the most ethical and honest of all the professions but it slipped to 89 per cent last year – the same result as this year.
Just as nurses continue holding the top spot on the list, those in car sales don’t seem to be able to shake their poor image. They continue to remain on the bottom of the list not too much below newspaper journalists and advertising people.
Politicians may not be at the bottom but they still continue to rate rather poorly, our federal politicians only managing to get 19 per cent who trusted them and state politicians were just behind on 18 per cent.
Whether or not the economic downturn has changed perception of many of the professions, overall the image of professions had the largest fall ever recorded. Twenty-three fields out of the 30 in the survey fell in the public’s estimation.
Professions exempt from this fall were Nurses, Bank Managers and Estate Agents who all remained the same as last year; State Supreme Court Judges and High Court Judges who gained one per cent on the trust scale and Doctors who were trusted three per cent more than they were last year.
Financial Planners entered this list for the first time this year with a rating of 25 per cent – in front of Directors of Public Companies at 17 per cent (five per cent down on last year) Business Managers at 16 per cent (five per cent down on last year) and Stockbrokers at 15 per cent (three per cent down on last year.
The survey is conducted annually by telephone and these were the findings with 687 Australian men and women aged 14 and over.
Respondents were asked “As I say different occupations, could you please say – from what you know or have heard – which rating best described how you, yourself, would rate or score people in various occupations for honesty and thical stands (Very High, High, Average, Low, Very Low).
Here are the some of the results:
The Top Five Professions Polled on Honesty
1. Nurses; 2. Pharmacists; 3. Doctors; 4. School Teachers; 5. Dentists
The Bottom Five Professions Polled on Honesty
30. Car Salesmen; 29. Advertising People; 28. Newspaper Journalists; 27. Estate Agents; 26. Insurance Brokers.
Sourced: www.roymorgan.com
| 40 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
Comment by Morgan Bell
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
i would put doctors and nurses in the least honest, in all my medical experience, they always lie and bluff and fabricate and cover-up, they always misdiagnose rather than say they dont know, and they are always in the pockets of the insurance companies when it comes to workers comp
i wonder where engineers are on the list? i would rate civil engineers pretty high, along with project managers and site managers in mining and construction . . . they are all pretty straight-forward people
same with scientists and researchers
Comment by Janet Collins
Acceptable Etiquette
The Social Critic
Janet Collins Blog
Engineers came in 6th place so they are pretty high on the list. Some of the others don't have their own categories but if you want to look at the entire results it is here:
Really Long Link
Thanks.