I disagree that nurses are altogether absent from policymaking. In my own research I have identified hundreds of nurses who work in policy positions, at the U.S. Congress, the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, the National Partnership for Women and Families, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services, and others.

The Nightingale Policy Institute (http://www.policynurses.org), an online organization I am a founding member of and at which I am vice president of communications, has more than 400 members, many of them young nurses who aspire to become involved in policy.

The Washington, DC, area also hosts three annual conferences for RNs interested in public policy work. The Nursing Organizations Alliance (http://www.nursing-alliance.org) hosts the Nurse in Washington Internship, which I directed between 1985 and 1992. George Mason University's Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics (http://www.gmu.edu/departments/chpre) hosts the Washington Health Policy Institute, which I directed for two years. I'm currently the director of the Advanced Public Policy Institute for Health Professionals conference of the American College of Nurse Practitioners (http://www.acnpweb.org).

Nancy J. Sharp, MSN, RN, FAAN

Bethesda, MD

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