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Citation: Buresh, B. and Gordon, S. (2013). From silence to voice: What nurses know and must communicate to the public (The culture and politics of health care work). 3rd ed. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press.

Discussion: In this book by Suzanne Gordon and Bernice Buresh, the authors convey their journalistic perspectives and experience in writing about health care work. They provide an informative insight that nurses need to do a better job of accurately describing what nurses do and how nurses use expert knowledge acquired through scientific and technical mastery. They caution that nurses fail to articulate the value of the contribution nurses make to successful patient outcomes. Their message to nurses is that there is a reason that the public has such little understanding of nursing and the importance of our work. The reason is twofold: traditional stereotypes about nursing cloud the reality of nursing as it is currently practiced, and nurses have been patterned to describe their contribution to health care in self‐sacrificing and anonymous ways.

Implications for Practice: Nurses need to be clear about why it is important for the public to know what nurses do and how nurses use specialized knowledge based on science to deliver health care. This book is an important vehicle from which nurses can begin to examine their own words and ways of discussing what nurses do and reflect upon the historical religious and societal practices that interfere with a clear, accurate, and realistic image of modern nursing. It is important for nurses to be clear about the value of nursing—their assessments, decisions, knowledgeable actions, ability to educate, emergency responses, and therapeutic compassion. What nurses often think of as their ordinary work is really quite extraordinary. Nurses use scientific knowledge, expert judgment, and complex skills to make critical decisions that affect patient outcomes. Nurses need to be able to articulate how they do their work and the difference it makes in the lives of patients and families, their communities and to the health of the nation.