The most powerful position in nursing - and one of the most influential jobs in the NHS - will be advertised in the next few days as the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) seeks a replacement for its general secretary Christine Hancock.
After almost 12 years at the helm of the RCN, the most famous nurse in the country - after Charlie and Duffy from Casualty - is leaving next June to take up a less demanding role as president of the International Council of Nurses.
Her successor - who is expected to be unveiled in January next year - will inherit not only a £90,000 plus salary but one of the most high profile trade union jobs around. Society Guardian's recent Power 90 poll ranked Ms Hancock as the 14th most influential person in the NHS.
But trying to get anyone to admit they covet the post is tricky. Jane Salvage, director of nursing for publishing company Emap, and ex-nursing officer for the World Health Organization, is one of the few who will openly admit hankering after what she calls the top job in nursing.
'It's a great job. We're at a very interesting point in nursing's development and in the politics of the NHS and one of the reasons the job is so desirable and interesting is that in terms of the government's agenda you do have power to make sure that nursing makes its proper contribution.'
But those who regard the RCN as an essentially conservative organisation wonder whether the independently minded Salvage - who last year tried and failed to get the job of chief nurse for England - would get past the initial weeding out process.
Although she is well-known among nurses - she writes a regular column for Nursing Times - neither she, nor any candidate, can appeal to the membership because the general secretary's post is appointed by an RCN council committee rather than election.
Ray Rowden, health policy analyst and a frequent thorn in the college's side, says he is not going for the job, despite recently standing unsuccessfully for the elected post of RCN president.
He thinks the choice likely to be a current RCN official - such as Tom Bolger, the deputy general secretary, or Alison Kitson, director of the RCN institute (the college's educational and professional development arm).
'They're not going to go for anyone radical or exciting. I think it's going to be more of the same,' he says.
Mr Bolger is strongly fancied for the top job because he has been Hancock's deputy for 10 years and knows the RCN and its workings inside out. His gender could be a drawback in a woman-dominated profession, however, even though Ms Hancock's predecessor was a man, Trevor Clay.
Mr Bolger admits that he would consider the post - once he has seen the advertisement.
The leather-trousered, spiky-haired Ms Kitson would certainly "shock matron" according to some commentators. Others question whether she has the "common touch" that would endear herself to members.
Pippa Gough, head of the RCN's policy unit is seen as another possible candidate. But Gough, like Kitson, is regarded by many as more of a policy wonk than a dyed-in-the-wool trade unionist.
Mike Hayward, an RCN steward in Portsmouth and frequent critic of the RCN hierarchy, believes that the post will go to Bolder, Gough or Kitson, even though none, in his opinion, fit the bill.
'What we need is a leader with a good trades union background because, after all, that's what people pay their pound, shilling and pence for.'
A senior figure in the college says that so far just three people have informally indicated they will stand: Bolger, Kitson and Salvage.
The past three general secretaries - Hancock, Clay, and Catherine Hall - were outsiders, which could be good news for Salvage.
