Nurse Your Ethics Back to Health

Clearly, nurses are doing something right. Now, I'm not suggesting all nurses are perfect. Anyone who has spent time in a hospital, either as a patient or a visitor, has seen bad ones. What's more, the health-care industry is under a lot of cost pressure, and nurses simply aren't able to spend as much time with their patients as they once did. Yet, nurses continue to pull down enviable ethical ratings even though they have more work to do and fewer resources.

Furthermore, the compliance demands on nurses to document accidents and other bad outcomes are incredible. They're much more intense than the compliance obligations of a typical financial advisor. So why do nurses score much higher on ethics surveys than your typical salesperson or business professional? And what can you as a financial advisor learn from them?

I believe the answer boils down to the quality of the American Nursing Association's Code of Ethics. Three elements, in particular, assure that nurse behavior is ethically upstanding:

1. Nurses must view patients as their primary commitment. All other agendas are secondary.
2. Nurses must treat patients with compassion and respect, regardless of outside social or economic factors.
3. Nurses must advocate for the health, safety and rights of their patients.

You, too, can have high ethical ratings by adopting these standards in your own business. Here's how:

1. Always strive to avoid conflicts of interest. They key is to always sit on the same side of the table as your clients. If you're not, stand up and switch chairs now.
2. Make sure that everything you do for—and say to—a client comes from a place of respect. All clients regardless of wealth or status deserve to be treated with dignity.
3. View yourself as your clients' financial advocate. Be protective of their assets. And fight for them when other advisors or institutions attempt to harm them. If you don't nurse their financial wellbeing, who will?