Who cares whether nurses win international prizes? We all should. The world is struggling with the lethal effects of a nursing shortage, and the related migration of nurses away from the neediest countries - due in part to a lack of understanding of the nature and value of the profession. The recognition that comes with such prizes could greatly benefit the public's health by proclaiming to the world, from preschoolers to national leaders, that nursing is one of the most vital fields of human endeavor.

The Physiology or Medicine Prize has typically been given to those engaged in research at the cellular level. The 2006 prize, awarded to biomedical researchers Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for their discovery of gene silencing by double-stranded RNA, is a good example. Such research provides some key foundational information for health care, and honoring it is consistent with the specific provision in Nobel's will that the prize should go to the person who has "made the most important discovery" within the named life science fields. However, that focus also means the prize does not generally go to those who effect systemic change, such as public health workers and many leading nurses.

Some institution of global influence should honor nursing, whose leaders are clearly among those who have "conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." Recognition through a Nobel Prize in nursing would strengthen the nursing profession and help resolve the world's critical nursing shortage.