Pharmacists remain most trusted professionals among consumers

Drug Store News, Jan 15, 2007 by Jim Frederick

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- A new poll has found that 73 percent of Americans rank their pharmacist "very high" or "high" in terms of honesty and ethics.

The top three ranked professions, according to the USA Today/Gallup poll were nurses, pharmacists and veterinarians. Pharmacists have been ranked in the top three since 1989.

"Pharmacists prove their worth every day helping their patients choose and use the correct medications," said Bruce Roberts, vice president and chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association. "This year in particular, pharmacists have played a pivotal role helping seniors navigate the new Medicare Part D prescription drug plan.

In a seperate poll of pharmacy customers, pharmacists were ranked the second-most trusted source for health information after doctors, according to the 2006 Wilson Rx / Boehringer Ingleheim Pharmacy Satisfaction Digest.

The lowest-ranked professions in the poll were car salespeople, advertising practitioners and HMO managers.

Who consumers trust for medication information

              5 (Trust                        1 (Do Not
             Very Much)    4     3     2    Trust At All)

Doctor          77%       18%    4%
Pharmacist      64%       27%    7%    1%         1%
Nurse           43%       32%   19%    3%         3%
Pharmacy        20%       31%   30%    9%        10%
brochure
Friend or       12%       23%   39%   14%        12%
relative

Source: 2006 Wilson Rx/Boehringer-Ingleheim Pharmacy Satisfaction

Digest