International Council of Nurses

ICN
International Council of Nurses
Founded	1899
Headquarters	Geneva, Switzerland
Location	International;
Members	135
Key people	Dr Pamela Cipriano, President
Website	www.icn.ch

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 130 national nurses associations. It was founded in 1899 and was the first international organization for health care professionals. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.

The organization's goals are to bring nurses' organizations together in a worldwide body, ic status of nurses and the profession of nursing worldwide, and to influence global and domestic health policy.

Membership is limited to one nursing organization per nation. In most cases, this is the national nurses' association (such as the American Nurses Association, the Slovak Chamber of Nurses and Midwives or the Nursing Association of Nepal).^[1] In 2001, ICN permitted its members to adopt alliance or collaborative structures to be more inclusive of other domestic nursing groups.^[2] However, few member organizations have adopted the new structures.

^ The ICN has been criticized for this restriction, as some ICN members are too financially insecure or organizationally immature to be effective participants. Other organizations may be unrepresentative of nurses in their home country, by virtue of membership size, or the nature of the membership (e.g., the American Nurses Association is dominated by managers rather than frontline nurses).
^ International Council of Nurses. From Vision to Action: ICN in the 21st Century. Geneva, Switzerland: ICN, 2003.

[1] The ICN has been criticized for this restriction, as some ICN members are too financially insecure or organizationally immature to be effective participants. Other organizations may be unrepresentative of nurses in their home country, by virtue of membership size, or the nature of the membership (e.g., the American Nurses Association is dominated by managers rather than frontline nurses).

[2] International Council of Nurses. From Vision to Action: ICN in the 21st Century. Geneva, Switzerland: ICN, 2003.

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