The Most Trusted Profession - Emerging Nurse Leader

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

“The friend in my adversity, I shall always cherish the most. I can better trust those who helped relieve my gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.” Ulyssess S. Grant

According to the 2012 Gallup Poll just released, 85% of Americans rated nurses’ honesty and ethical standards as “very high” or “high,” the highest rating for RNs since nurses were first included in the poll in 1999. Nurses outrank all other professions including physicians, pharmacists, dentists and even members of the clergy. In a statement in response to the poll, ANA President Karen A. Daley noted that “This poll consistently shows that people connect with nurses and trust them to do the right thing, Policymakers should do the same as they debate crucial budget decisions that will affect health care quality and access for millions of Americans.”

The results of this poll probably don’t surprise most nurses practicing at the front-lines of patient care. They demonstrate caring every day in an increasingly complex health care delivery system. When patients or their families ask the difficult question about what the nurse would do if they were in the same situation – most nurses that I know tell the truth. Karen A. Daley does raise a very good point about using this poll to influence the debate on health reform. Nurses are in an excellent position to talk about the challenges in our current system. We need to continue to be honest about what we know and more vocal about our experiences when it matters.

Telling our Stories

It is stories that can often be the most compelling way to illustrate what is happening in health care today. Stories to illustrate how patients are often not fully informed about their treatment options. Stories about futile care given to a patient in a trauma unit that leaves the nursing staff feeling moral distress. Stories about the failure to discuss end of life options with a patient who just wants to die peacefully but whose family insists on aggressive treatment. Stories about a 30 year woman with a breast nodule who has a free mammogram but no followup care because her condition is not considered an emergency.

A Case Example

Jim Stubenrauch and Joy Jacobson are co-founders of the program that teaches narrative writing to health care professionals. They recently wrote a compelling blog on the power that stories can have in health care reform debate. In this blog, they talk about the recently published story A Nurse Learns Firsthand that You May have to Fend for Yourself after a Hospital Stay in Health Affairs by Beth Swan, Dean and Professor of Nursing at Thomas Jefferson University. Beth told the story of what happened when her husband suffered a brain stem stroke while on a business trip in Chicago. She had to assume the responsibility to coordinate all aspects of her husband’s recovery, including his transfer from Chicago to a rehab facility in Philadelphia. Even with all of her nursing knowledge and medical contacts, she found the following year of coordinating Eric’s outpatient care overwhelming. The story of Beth and her husband’s experiences vividly illustrates the lack of coordination in our health care delivery system that nurses know all too well.

The point is that you can talk to politicians about the need for care transition programs, and perhaps some might listen. But I am willing to bet that anyone reading Beth’s story will feel the pain, anxiety and fear in a much more compelling way. As the most trusted professionals in the United States, we should claim the platform to tell these stories that can change healthcare.