As you may have seen, this year’s Gallup Poll on “Honesty and Ethical Ratings
of People in Different Professions” (Gallup News Service, Dec. 5, 2005) found
nurses again firmly on top, with lawyers far behind.
Americans were asked “to rate the honesty and ethical standards of members of
professions on a five-point scale that ranges from “very high” to “very low.” Eighty-
two percent said that Nurses rated High or Very High, while only 18 percent put
Lawyers at the high end of honesty and ethics. On the other hand, thirty-five percent
of those surveyed said Lawyers have Low or Very Low honesty and ethics, while a
mere three percent rated Nurses that low.
Given those results, I had to follow up, when I discovered yesterday that someone
had Googled how do i become a lawyer as a registered nurse>. [By the way, the
# 1 result out of 1.75 million was an f/k/a post that mentioned Mary Coffin, who
switched from nursing to law in her 40s.] My quick research turned up a 2001 article
from the Detroit News entitled “Weary nurses find jobs, joy in other professions.” The
article quoted Barbara Redman, dean of the Wayne State University School of Nursing,
saying that nurses may be leaving traditional clinical roles, but they aren’t “abandoning
their public service role of caring for patients.” The article then states:
‘Ann Mandt, a Detroit attorney and registered nurse, agreed: ‘I’m doing the “ivstand”
same thing I did as a nurse. I’m taking care of patients’.”
According to her firm profile, at the plaintiff’s personal injury firm of Charfoos & Christen-
sen, Mandt “is involved in all areas of practice, including medical malpractice, drug
products litigation, legal malpractice, mass tort and multiple/complex litigation.” I
wonder how many of those surveyed for Gallup’s poll would consider that to be “doing
the same thing I did as a nurse . . . taking care of patients”?
My web search also located the interesting case of Michael Latigona, a critical
care ambulance transport Registered Nurse, who was recently a gubernatorial candidate
in New Jersey and has just announced formation of the One New Jersey Party. At a
candidate information website, which makes its reports “based on submissions by the
candidate to the Eagleton Insitute of Politics,” I learned that Marlton resident Latigona
“has more ethics and morals than any person we have ever known in the political arena.”
In addition he “has taken up the study of law, although he admits ethically he could not
become a lawyer.: He states,
“I could not in good faith become a lawyer, although I have always wanted to.
I cannot lie or embellish to represent a client. It’s just not in my nature to do
so. Rather than going home and reading a book like the DaVinci Code, I go
home and read New Jersey statutes, interpret court decisions, and follow the
latest in legal decisions and legislation. I love the law, and know exactly how
to use it for all New Jerseyan’s. I’ve studied it for over ten years now.”
. . . .
“Who do you think will do the job better, a businessman, a lawyer, or a Regis-
tered Nurse who places people first, knows the law, and exactly how to use it?”
The website concludes — apparently based on candidate-submitted materials —
that “Latigona has an acute awareness of how to use the law, and how New Jersey-
an’s can benefit from someone like himself who chooses to use the power of an
elected position to get the job done.” At Latigona’s former campaign website we learn
that he will run for Mayor or Town Council in 2006, and he “vows if Governor elect Jon
Corzine does not fulfill his promises, he will start a recall in one year as law allows.”
Where is this post going? Darned if I know. It’s difficult to say whether disgruntled
nurses will find career satisfaction in the law, much less joy. I do believe, however,
that Americans will continue to trust nurses more than lawyers for as long as they
believe that nurses choose their profession in order to serve and lawyers choose theirs
in order to attain wealth, power and status.
tiny fevered brow –
the tick of the clock
measuring the night
wishing fountain
outside the cancer clinic:
some heads, some tails
fire-side poetry –
I turn to warm the left side
of my brain
mammogram–
morning snowflakes
stick
Alice Frampton from New Resonance 3 (2003)
“fire-side poetry” – Raw NerVZ Haiku Volume VII No. 3
“mammogram” – The Heron’s Nest IV:2
“wishing fountain” – Frogpond XXV: 1
“tiny fevered brow” – In the Light, from the haibun Boots
potluck
At his weblog today, Prof. Bainbridge decided to take one anecdote and
try to turn it into a blanket condemnation of what he calls “socialized medicine.”
As is often the case (1) Steve leaves his analytical tools elsewhere when one of
his pet peeves is involved; and (2) a number of his Commentors do a good job
of explaining reality to him. Good, ’cause I’m too tired to try.
