Nurses are highly trusted by the public and are viewed as honest, intelligent, caring, and reliable professionals. Given this high esteem, how valuable are nurses’ opinions, thoughts, and feelings? Furthermore, where can nurses express these insights and share what they have to say?
Many Messages, Many Media
In the 21st century, our ability to share opinions has undergone a significant transformation. When we compare the current communication landscape to that of 30 or 40 years ago, it’s clear that many changes have taken place. Nurses now have access to an almost limitless number of platforms for communication. If you’re a nurse with insights or experiences to share, the opportunity to reach a broad audience with your thoughts and opinions is more significant than ever before.
Back in the 1970s or 1980s, if a nurse had a strong opinion about, for example, the world of health insurance, they could choose to write a letter to the editor in their local or regional newspaper; if they were lucky, a few hundred or thousand people would read what they had to say. However, they weren’t even assured that the paper would publish their letter in the first place despite it being an important local community forum.
In 2025, the situation has significantly changed in ways that the nurses of the 1970s could not even have imagined. If you have something to share with the world, you now have the potential and the technology to launch your own channel within minutes, with the potential to reach people around the world with your message. Where should you begin if you want to get your thoughts out there?
Blogs: 20 years ago, blogs were new and revolutionary, and while they’re not as popular now, it’s still pretty easy to launch a written platform in a matter of minutes. With many plug-and-play website builders to choose from, you could go from 0 to 60 by this evening and have your words read by others on the internet.
YouTube and TikTok: Video is currently king in many ways, and many nurses have taken to YouTube and/or TikTok to get their point across. Gone are the days when slickly produced video was necessary or preferred. People enjoy raw and spontaneous videos. Although not everyone becomes viral, the potential to share an important message with a large audience is significant. If you’re comfortable in front of the camera, video offers a unique immediacy and impact that is hard to match.
Podcasts: Audio podcasts are still popular, and dozens of high-quality nursing podcasts are available on multiple platforms. Some podcasts have both a video and audio component, launching simultaneously on YouTube and Apple Podcasts, while some remain audio-only.
Freelance Writing: There are plenty of online (and some print) publications that feature nurses’ voices, and while the on-ramp to this sort of content platform is steeper than self-publishing a blog or launching a video or audio show, some nurses make money writing, either as a full-time gig or as a side hustle. For those with a talent for the written word, there’s potential to break into this space for a percentage of nurses interested in doing so.
You’re a Nurse, After All
One way to get your point across on critical and timely issues is to write to or speak with your local, state, and federal elected officials. While signing an online petition or form letter is relatively easy, direct communication with your government representatives means much more.
Look at it this way: there’s so much that you know about healthcare, medicine, and the care of other people, and elected officials only understand your experience if you share it with them. After all, only a few of them have experience as healthcare professionals, but all are healthcare consumers.
When you take the time to write an email or letter to a member of Congress or the Senate or send a message to a local government official like the mayor or a state representative, they consider that your opinion probably represents many people who haven’t made the effort. In some local communities and cities, it’s possible to meet with a staffer — or even officials themselves — and you can rely on the fact that many have natural trust in nurses. And if you want to capitalize on that trust even more, maybe you’d like to run for public office yourself.
No matter how you share them, realize that your opinions matter as a nurse and citizen. Whether you’re writing letters to the editor, posting on TikTok, or meeting with the mayor of the city where you live, there will always be others who’ll want to hear what you have to say. You’re a nurse, after all.
- Nurse Side Hustles: How Nurses Are Creating New Income Opportunities - April 23, 2026
- How to Become an FNP: Career Path, Requirements, and Certification - April 9, 2026
- Your Nursing Career on Your Terms - August 21, 2025