Responsible science communication can literally be the difference between life and death. Mass media, especially the news, as well as social media sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter, have a significant influence on people’s health beliefs and actions. As nurses we have a critical role to play in how the media reports on health issues and public health policy and on what messages the public and policy makers receive. As clinicians, researchers, educators, public health practitioners, policy makers, and more, nurses need to use our expertise and voices to bring about change. At no  other time in our recent history has this been truer than during the current pandemics of COVID-19, racial injustice, and health inequity. But nursing is a field often misunderstood by the public and the media. Most people think of nurses solely as clinicians at the bedside who do nothing more than take orders from physicians. But nurses are highly trained subject matter experts who work in a wide range of specialty areas including public health, social justice, law, history, research, education, school nursing, and more. Nurses rarely recognized or ‘verified’ as experts. Yet, the field of nursing is rarely recognized by the public, journalists, or even social media sites for this expertise. Open up any news article, or turn on any news program, and the vast majority of subject matter experts quoted or interviewed are our physician counterparts. As was reported in “The Woodhull Study Revisited: Nurses’ Representation in Health News Media 20 Years Later,” published … Continue reading Verified: Nurse Media Influencers