Powerful nurses

After reading the article "Powerful: Nurses can create change" (Nurse.com/Article/Powerful-Nurses), I felt compelled to salute your efforts to shed light on how much of a difference nurses can have. As an RN, I know nurses can be powerful and create change by advocating for patients' rights. In the article, a nurse described empowerment as the ability to authorize oneself to act in pursuit of safe, quality, patient-centered care, and I have to agree. There are nurses who fail to recognize how important their voices or input are and that they play an essential role in patient care delivery. The fact is, we are our patients' voices and we should do our best to protect them. I applaud the effort of many nurses who served as leaders in the article and I encourage myself and other fellow nurses to continue to work for positive changes. -- Ghandy Jean-Gilles, RN Brooklyn, N.Y.