It is well known that hospital boards in Iowa and throughout the United States are composed of medical doctors and an abundance of people with M.B.A.s. The CEOs of hospitals direct their organizations’ daily operations and are ultimately responsible to the board of trustees, who approve policy. But why are CEOs and other senior management of hospitals failing to ask nurses for their expertise?

In Iowa, nurses on hospital boards are never mentioned, if they indeed exist. A random online search found that few hospitals and medical centers even publish the names and credentials of those who are serving on their governing boards.

Suzanne Gordon, a noted journalist and author of a new book titled “Nursing Against the Odds,” likens nurses to automobile engines. Just as taking the engine out of a car renders it useless, without nurses, hospitals would not exist.

And public opinion polls revealed once again this year that nurses are the most trusted professionals in the United States.

With any given encounter with patients, nurses are rescuing patients from complications of illness and possible death. Many people believe nurses take “orders” from doctors and do not think independently about the care they provide for patients. This simply is not true. The Iowa Board of Nursing clearly states that nurses must question and be aware of all treatments for patients, both appropriate and inappropriate, and take steps to promote patient safety.

Nurses know that if immobile patients are not turned, they develop bedsores and severe wound infections. If a client with acute pneumonia is not monitored for lung sounds, assessed for respiratory rate and skin color, evaluated for oxygen therapy and given crucial intravenous antibiotic therapy, they will likely die. If the needle is not in the vein when strong chemotherapy is given, skin ulcers are likely to occur.

Nurses also know what happens when staffing is inadequate to meet patient needs or when they have worked so much overtime they miss erratic heartbeats or fail to detect internal bleeding.

Some nurses are highly educated with research utilization backgrounds. They would be useful for consultation when policy decisions are made that affect patient outcomes.

Gordon argues that hospitals cannot be run exclusively as a business. She reports that the United States spends $2 trillion on health care every year, yet patient outcomes such as newborn mortality rates are well above those in many other Western countries. She also contends that about half of the $2 trillion is spent by hospitals on marketing to compete with one another.

Nurses understand how hospitals run and know which ones produce good outcomes for patients. They know what it takes to keep hospital doors open 24 hours a day. They know about work environments and cultures that are good for patients and hospital staff.

May is the month when we honor nurses. How about honoring them by asking them for their expertise on hospital boards of trustees? Forget the pencils, fruit baskets and T-shirts. Patients’ lives are at stake.

Jean Logan is a registered nurse, a professor at Grand View College and a member of the Broadlawns Medical Center board of trustees.