Introduction [excerpt] The public interest in healthcare information from the media presents nursing with its greatest opportunity to make sure nursing research and practice is known to the public. It is the opportunity to demonstrate how in-tune nursing is with the health care needs of the 21st century, to gain a voice on how health care ought to be organized in this country and to be a full-fledged "player" (Buresh, 1998). "A profession's public status and legitimacy is...