I recently showed a copy of Cheryl Wagner's article, "Moral Distress as a Contributor to Nurse Burnout" (Viewpoint, April), to a nursing director at my facility. She hadn't heard of this term.

As nurses, it is our professional responsibility to know when our patients are not safe. On occasion, I have questioned whether a patient was fully able to judge her or his safety at discharge, and yet timely discharge is one of our goals. With all of the tasks required in today's workplace, it is too easy not to stop and question our patients. The stress mounts when the patients' answers are not what we hope to hear.

If I have learned one thing in my 43 years of nursing, it's that we have but one job as nurses-to keep our patients safe.

Michelle Burrill, RN

Oakland, CA