The nation’s largest union of registered nurses, National Nurses United (NNU), celebrated nurses being named the Gallup poll’s most honest and ethical profession for the 24th consecutive year, an honor which NNU says is especially meaningful given the many ways nurses have stood up for their patients in 2025 while the Trump administration has attacked public health and the very humanity of immigrant and trans people like never before.

“Nurses are deeply moved every year to see the sacred bond of trust we have with our patients uplifted in the Gallup poll,” said NNU President Mary Turner, RN. “Topping the poll in 2025 is especially moving because this past year has been a time when nurses rose up as patient advocates on all fronts. We have been fighting to protect our patients from Medicaid cuts and the loss of Affordable Care Act subsidies; standing up and saying ICE does not belong in our hospitals; calling out attacks on the union rights of federal workers, including 15,000 of our Veterans Affairs nurses; and so much more. Our patients know we respect their humanity, their dignity. We will always be there for them, whether that means standing up in our hospitals, speaking up in the offices of our representatives, or marching in the streets to demand strong action on protecting public health and safety.”

In the Gallup poll conducted Dec. 1-15, 2025, 75 percent of U.S. adults said nurses have “high” or “very high” honesty and ethical standards. Gallup first conducted its Honesty and Ethics poll in 1976 and has updated it annually since 1990. A handful of professions have been on the list every year, while Gallup asks about others periodically. Nurses have taken the number one spot in all but one year since they were added in 1999. The exception is 2001, when firefighters were measured on a one-time basis shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. 

Nurses say the Trump administration’s 2025 budget reconciliation bill, H.R. 1, which slashed funding for Medicaid and other public health programs, while massively increasing funding for ICE and cutting taxes for billionaires, is “a dire threat to public health.” Demanding a reversal of these cuts and a society that prioritizes public health over private profit has been a critical part of patient advocacy for nurses.

“RNs have been fighting back so fiercely against the billionaire power grab and efforts to divide working people. We’ve lobbied in Washington, D.C., and in key districts across the country, to let Congress members know cuts to public programs will kill patients and to call for critical protections, like Medicare for All,” said Turner.  “We want our patients to know that, even when times are tough, union nurses are tougher. It’s possible to have a healthy society that prioritizes care, compassion, and justice, and as nurses, we will stay loud and keep fighting for that healthy future so our collective power can win the public health protections our patients deserve.”

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.