Gallup Survey Finds Public Confidence in Pharmacists at a Record High

Three-fourths of respondents expressed a high or very high opinion of pharmacists' honesty and ethical standards-but some within the profession tend to discount these findings.

The annual Gallup survey of professional honesty and ethics for 2012 was released this month. This survey shows pharmacists scoring their highest score ever. In fact, 75% of respondents rated the honesty and ethical standards of pharmacists either highly or very highly. During the 3 decades Gallup has conducted this poll, pharmacists have routinely ranked near the top. It is our hope that prescription plan sponsors will take note of the public trust in pharmacists and design plans that encourage interaction between patient and pharmacist to improve patient outcomes.

Pharmacists should feel good about our annual positive rating in this Gallup survey. However, I have often heard fellow academics ask why we rank so high. Rather than feel proud that our graduates do well and are highly esteemed by the public, these academics often want to discount the survey. I think this occurs because too many academics and specialist pharmacists think that the best pharmacists are people like themselves. Therefore, when the Gallup survey comes out they want to discount the value of the survey results rather than celebrate them. What do you think of Gallup’s results?