Yes, I know everyone in the U.S. is ready for election season to end. I haven’t mentioned it once, though…until today. With tomorrow’s Election Day home stretch, I have to encourage everyone to vote if you haven’t done so already.

I cannot imagine living in a time when I could not cast my vote. I owe my right to many, many people – men and women, including nurses. Yes, nurses. Numerous state nursing associations formed before women’s suffrage, so as the movement progressed, there were already large groups of women – nurses – organized to aid in the effort. And they did. Nurses like Louisa May Alcott, a Civil War nurse most widely known as a distinguished American novelist; Sarah Tarleton Colvin, a graduate of Johns Hopkins and a Red Cross nurse; and Lavinia Lloyd Dock, a visiting nurse to the poor and the author of the first nursing drug book, among many others, fought for women’s right to vote, even enduring imprisonment. And let’s not forget it was many of these women who also fought for equality in nursing, giving men the opportunity to join the nursing workforce as respected professionals.

Don’t take the right to vote for granted. No matter your political belief, cast your ballot and celebrate your voice. Voting for the President of the United States should be the tip of proverbial iceberg of U.S. nurses’ political and advocacy involvement.

Vote!