A couple of years ago had the pleasure of chairing the Nurse in Washington Internship Program (NIWI) for the Nursing Organizations Alliance (NOA). Nurses from all over the country attended, to increase their political savvy, and to discuss healthcare policy with their elected officials. While there, experienced one of those flashes of insight (also known as aha moments) in which realized that had gained most of what needed to know about advocating for patients in my work as a hospital nurse leader. found myself reminiscing about an early lesson learned when a physician colleague and could not come to an agreement. He hadn't concurred with the nursing house supervisor, either, which was why the issue had escalated to me, the hospital chief nurse executive. had explained to him that every bed in our sole community hospital was full, and that a dozen patients were now lying on gurneys in the emergency department hallway waiting for beds, with more patients flowing into the standing-room-only waiting area. Of the several patients he was attending, two had been assessed by the nursing staff as ready for discharge tonight, rather than the next He refused to write discharge orders, even though he agreed they were stable enough to go home. Mystified, asked him to help me understand his rationale, especially since he had just made a speech at our capital budget meeting about how doctors are the major advocates for patients. I am my patient's advocate, he replied, why I'm holding onto those beds in case any of my other patients needs to be admitted before tomorrow morning. That's when realized that we were poles apart in our definition of advocacy, at least on this night. was advocating for the entire patient population, through distribution of scarce resources based on most need. He was advocating for his own patients, even if they did not have a need for the resources he was attempting to hoard. This was the first time realized that advocacy has various meanings to different people and even to the same people at different times. To many people advocacy appears to primarily refer to attempts to influence public policy or resource allocation through the political process. To others it's about gaining rights for certain groups. In some countries, such as Scotland and India, advocate is a synonym for professional lawyer. In the following collection of articles, the word is a synonym for professional nurse.The authors featured in this issue share their ideas about the responsibility and privilege nurses have to advocate for our patients, as specific persons and as populations, and for our profession as a whole. Each addresses advocacy from a different point of view, but all offer thoughtful and broad discussions of what we can, and must, do as advocates who will work to improve healthcare across the continuum, for everyone. Louise Selanders and Patrick Crane begin this topic with the most famous historical nursing leader. In Voice of Florence Nightingale on Advocacy, they state that while Nightingale did not directly use the word advocacy as a nursing responsibility, her actions and her writing were consistently about advocating for change. The woman who is credited with establishing nursing as a profession, rather than a domestic service, advocated for individuals, specific groups, and society as a whole. She was aware of the need to overcome gender bias through increasing opportunities for women. She insisted on equity of care regardless of religion or faith, and was a crusader for basic human rights. Selanders and Crane remind us that her techniques became the basis for modern nursing leadership theories, and that it is clear Florence Nightingale knew the importance of both leadership and advocacy. Nightingale has been followed by generations of nurses who have identified the needs of patients and taken action to get these needs met. Mary Maryland and Rose Gonzalez offer examples of how this mission continues today in their article, Patient Advocacy in the Community and Legislative Arenas. …