The topline of this year’s annual Gallup Poll into honesty and ethics of professions finds nurses sustaining their reign as the top trusted profession in America. But it’s also important to point out that four of the top five most ethical professions are people working on the front lines of health care: doctors (#3), pharmacists (#4) and dentists (#5).

Engineers rank second this year after nurses, edging ahead of doctors and pharmacists who typically have ranked 2nd and 3rd each year in the past decade. One of these years, pharmacists’ reputation fell as the profession was associated with being a key driving force in the U.S. opioid crisis, but the role has re-gained its trust level in this year’s Gallup study.

That’s the top — healthcare and tech.

Check out the bottom of the list, which is a consistent ranking from last year’s study with a big of rearrangement: the ad “Mad Men,” insurance sales, Senators, Congress people, and car sales, the lowest five ranked for honest and ethics as professions in the U.S.

At a granular level, the honesty-ethics index on Members of Congress improved, relatively speaking, from 8 points in 2016 to 12 points in 2019 — that’s a 50% improvement. Senators’ score improved but at a lower rate, from 11 points in 2016 to 13 points in 2019.

Health Populi’s Hot Points:  Trust is the on-ramp to peoples’ health engagement; in the health/care ecosystem, nurses, doctors, pharmacists and dentists rank top in honesty and ethics, Gallup continues to tell us over the many years the pollsters have studied this question.

The exact words of that question are:

“Please tell me how you would rate the honesty and ethical standards of people in these different fields — very high, high, average, low or very low.”

The numbers in the green chart are the net of “very high” plus “high.”

As we compare the top five professions in honesty/ethics versus the lower five, we see a huge chasm between health care and technology versus politicians/public policymakers and people who “sell” — insurance, ads, and automobiles.

It’s healthcare that still ranks top-of-mind for issues challenging everyday people in the U.S., based on the latest Hill-HarrisX Poll shown here, fielded in December 2019. This is where we are in America as we begin a New Year that will be politically charged while health care ranks a top issue in the hearts, minds, and voter intentions among American citizens — hungry for health citizenship and privacy protections.