Nursing is a profession in crisis. Of the 250 000 nurses in Canada, more than 30 000 have left the profession. A Nurse's Opinion offers a balanced overview of many of the issues that have led to nursing's current dilemma. These include: the role of nursing in the health care system; increasing responsibility; long hours; low pay; increasingly large caseloads; burnout; exclusion from the decision-making process. A Nurse's Opinion points out the ways in which the historical development of nursing and the public perception of nurses as "selfless handmaidens" have contributed to the current crisis.