From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public

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.â•  Nursing Standard

For more than a decade,  From Silence to Voice has been providing nurses with communication tools they can use to win the resources and respect they deserve. Now, in a timely third edition, authors Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon focus on how nurses can describe and frame their work to seize unprecedented opportunities to advance their profession and lead improvements in health care systems.The authors, both journalists, argue that because nursing needs the support and cooperation of others to fulfill its potential, it is critical that nurses communicate the full scope of nursing practice. Nurses must go beyond describing nursing in terms of dedication and caring and articulate nurses' specialized knowledge and expertise.

From Silence to Voice helps nurses explain their contributions to patient safety, satisfaction, and outcomes. It shows how nurses can communicate with various publics about important aspects of their work, such as how they master and employ complex medical technologies and regimens, and how they use their clinical judgment in life-and-death situations. "Nurses and nursing organizations," the authors write, "must go out and tell the public what nurses really do so that patients can actually get the benefit of their expert care."

This comprehensively revised and updated third edition helps nurses use a range of traditional and social media to accurately describe the true nature of their work. Its analyses of images that are projected by nursing campaigns and its detailed guidance in helping nurses construct positive and powerful narratives of their work make From Silence to Voice a must-read in nursing schools and organizations and by individual nurses in all areas of the profession. Because nurses are busy, many of the communication techniques in this book are designed to integrate naturally into nurses’ everyday lives and to complement nurses’ work with patients and families. 

Bernice Buresh writes and lectures on health care, nursing, and the media. She has been a reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel, a correspondent and bureau chief for Newsweek, a professor of journalism at Boston University, and an adjunct professor of American Studies at Brandeis University. Suzanne Gordon is Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing and was program leader of the Robert Wood Johnson–funded Nurse Manager in Action Program. She is the author of Life Support and Nursing against the Odds, coauthor of Beyond the Checklist and Safety in Numbers, editor of When Chicken Soup Isn't Enough, and coeditor of First, Do Less Harm and The Complexities of Care, all from Cornell.