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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
* Trust, one of nursing's intangible assets, impacts nurses' ability to form meaningful relationships with patients and this connection positively impacts health outcomes.
* Linking trust to the fabric of nursing and investing in its measurement will become essential to nursing's valuation and the resulting investment in nursing.
* Trust, as nursing's core value, should be fostered by nurse educators as they prepare the next generation of nurses.
* Nurse administrators should connect the trust a patient has for his or her nurse and patient cooperation and honest transparent communication between providers and the patient.
* Banking trust as a valuable nursing asset will substantiate nursing's marketing and support its worth.
* Nursing's trustworthiness is an intangible asset that warrants protection, as trust once lost is hard to recapture.
LITTLE IS KNOWN ABOUT why the public trusts nurses and how this trust impacts nur - sing's value. Nurses proudly cite their long-standing trusted status recognized in public opinion polls (Gallup, 2012). Nursing, however, has failed to capitalize on the economic impact of this designation by documenting trust as a professional asset. Karen A. Daley, former president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), discussed recent Gallup poll and stated, "This poll consistently shows that people connect with nurses and trust them to do the right thing" (RTT News, 2013, para. 2). Trust, one of nursing's in tangible assets, im pacts nurses' ability to form meaningful relationships with patients and this connection positively impacts health outcomes. Nur sing's attributes related to nurse-patient trust include clinical competency, de monstrated compassion and goodwill, patient advocacy, pa tient vulnerability, and nurses' moral duty (see Figure 1).
Nursing's trusted status also impacts the patient's perspective on the quality of the health care system. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will change how the United States delivers health care. Health reform focuses on improving health care quality while also reducing re - source costs. As health care moves from a fee-based, "a la carte" volume- driven industry, it will struggle to become a leaner, high-quality, low-cost, patient-centered system. Demonstrating efficiency and comparative effectiveness will require the collection and analysis of data that measures worth (Bensink et al., 2013). Trust is an enhancer of the patient experience; trust is...