OTTAWA, Ontario -- From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public has been awarded a Book of the Year award by the prestigious American Journal of Nursing (AJN). The book was cited as one of the most valuable books of 2000 in the Nursing Professional Development category.

Canada and the United States are faced with the most serious nursing shortages in recent history. Both countries desperately need more nurses to care for an aging and chronically ill population that requires increasingly complex care. Yet, poor working environments and a lack of recognition and supports are driving experienced nurses away from the practice of nursing and discouraging young people from seriously considering entering the profession.

For Silence to Voice co-authors Suzanne Gordon and Bernice Buresh, the situation will not improve unless and until the public has a better understanding of the breadth and complexity of nursing work and the kind of resources necessary to support nurses' 'nowledgeable caregiving.

"It's a matter of record that RNs are the professionals at the bedside assessing patients' condition, coordinating care, managing pain and counselling families," says Suzanne Gordon. Buresh concurs, "It is baffling that the complex work patients are so thankful for in private is not reflected in the public arena with nearly the same intensity,"

From Silence to Voice documents the causes and impact of nursing's lack of visibility from the mainstream media. It is the brainchild of journalists and health care activists Suzanne Gordon and Bernice Buresh. The Boston-based veteran journalists and lecturers have combined their knowledge of North American nursing and media to help nurses make the most of opportunities to speak out in public and the media on issues that are critical to patients and to the nursing profession.

"Reading this book gave me an expanded vision and renewed enthusiasm for improving health care by making nursing practice visible to the public and the media" says Patricia Benner, RN, PhD, Professor of Nursing at the University of California, San Francisco." "The authors convincingly explain why nurses must take the risk to be heard and to be visible. Nothing less than a safer and healthier society is at stake," adds Benner.

From Silence to Voice has already been added to the required reading lists at the Schools of Nursing of the University of Iowa, St-Francis, Illinois and Seattle, Pacific. It is already widely cited as a reference tool by nursing groups from the United Kingdom to Japan.

This latest recognition from the AJN comes as From Silence to Voice is officially launched on the U.S. market. AJN is the official journal of the American Nursing Association.

Bernice Buresh writes and lectures on health care, nursing and the media. She has been a reporter for the Milwaukee Sentinel, a Newsweek correspondent and bureau chief and a professor of Journalism at Boston University. She is currently president of the Writers' Room of Boston, Inc.

Suzanne Gordon is the author of Life Support: Three Nurses On the Front Lines and co-editor of Caregiving: Readings in Knowledge, Practice, Ethics and Politics. She is an adjunct professor at McGill University's School of Nursing. Gordon is a health care commentator on American Public Radio International's "Marketplace," and a popular lecturer on nursing and health care in the United States and Canada.

CNA is the professional voice of nursing in Canada. It is a federation of 11 provincial and territorial nurses' associations.