As nurses face the ongoing challenges of an increasing need for their services combined with economic pressures, members of the largest profession in health care must become more visible, vocal, and influential. The first communication guidebook designed expressly for nurses, From Silence to Voice helps nurses understand and overcome the self-silencing that often leads RNs to downplay their own expertise and their contributions to the care of the sick and the health of the public. Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon teach nurses, nurse educators, and nurse researchers critical skills they can use to explain their work to other health-care professionals, journalists, policymakers, and political representatives.
From Silence to Voice features stories about nurses who ensure that patients receive appropriate, timely, and even life-saving care, nurses who make all the difference while crises are underway but whose contributions are neglected in medical charts and thank-you notes, nurses who are left out altogether or obscured by the generic "nurse." However, the book also provides detailed accounts of nurses who do make their voices heard, who do make their concerns public and it shows how those successes can be duplicated. Buresh and Gordon draw on real-world examples that will help nurses to
- gain respect for themselves as professionals,
- communicate well with both patients and health-care colleagues,
- understand how the news media work,
- collaborate with public relations professionals,
- write effective letters to the editor and publish op-ed pieces,
- appear on television and radio, and
- promote research on nursing."
"For the health and welfare of our patients the health care system demands the new nurse immediately assume a leadership position in patient care. To support and inform our graduates, From Silence to Voice must be included in all Professional Role and Leadership courses. While still in school students deserve the opportunity to be informed, reflect and discuss the centrality of the nursing role in the larger health care system. This book serves as a critical guide for students to learn how to develop a voice of agency, how to talk about the role of the nurse and the impact of nursing research to patients, providers, the public and politicians. From Silence to Voice is a field manual that will guide students step by step serving as both a protective mechanism and an anticipatory guide so the new nurse can practice the skills and knowledge our patients so desperately need. As one who opposes military metaphors but is also a realist I must warn you: Do not go into battle without this book. Your patients' and you own survival are at stake." Genevieve E. Chandler, RN, Ph.D." "The second edition of From Silence to Voice not only explores the fundamental causes of nursing's long-standing public image issues but also provides a toolkit for nurses at every level and role in the profession to fix them. A one-of-a-kind volume, it entertains, rouses, and inspires without ever condescending to the reader its message is fundamentally one of hope. It deserves a place on every nurse leader and aspiring nurse leader's bookshelf and should be required reading for students and professors in all programs." Sean Clarke, RN, Ph.D, CRNP, FAAN, Associate Director, Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing" "In this second edition of From Silence to Voice, Bernice Buresh and Suzanne Gordon continue to challenge nurses to find their voice. I urge faculty to adopt this teacher/student friendly text for their nursing issues, communication or policy courses. Our baccalaureate and second degree clinical nurse leader student are using this text and developing the skills needed to communicate effectively about nursing. They are finding their voices. As we educate the next generation of nurses, our profession needs them to be articulate, media savvy and engaged in informing the public and their colleagues about nursing, the nursing profession and our contributions to changing the current health system." Janet D. Allan, Ph.D, RN, FAAN, Dean and Professor, University of Maryland School of Nursing" "A superb analysis of our failure to articulate the value of the job we do and where credit is given to others for a successful patient outcome that is really down to good nursing. . . . 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" "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 (reviewing the first edition)"
