From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)

Praise for previous editions―

"The book is written by two journalists who have taken on the nursing profession more or less the way we take on patients with a life-threatening condition that is curable but requires both intensive and long-term care. The diagnosis, according to Buresh and Gordon, is silence. By being silent, we miss the opportunity to show ourselves as consequential in the delivery of healthcare. The remedy for silence, according to the authors, is voice―our voices raised in conversation first and foremost with our families, friends, and patients, and also with the general public."―Nursing Spectrum

"This is an invaluable book for all nurses, especially those who are proud of being nurses and who have always wanted to make others understand our passion."―Nursing Standard

To get the resources and respect they need, nurses have long had to be advocates for themselves and their profession, not just for their patients. For a decade, From Silence to Voice has provided nurses with the tools they need to explain the breath and complexity of nursing work. Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon have helped nurses around the world speak up and convey to the public that nursing is more than dedication and caring―it demands specialized knowledge, expertise across a range of medical technologies, and decision-making about life-and-death issues. "Nurses and nursing organizations," they write, "must go out and tell the public what nurses really do so that patients can actually get the benefit of their expert care."

The comprehensively revised and updated third edition of From Silence to Voice will help nurses construct messages using a range of traditional and new social media that accurately describe the true nature of their work. Because nurses are busy, the communication techniques in this book are designed to integrate naturally into nurses' everyday lives and to complement nurses' work with patients and families.