ICN’s Alliance of Student and Early Career Nurse holds inaugural meeting

The International Council of Nurses’ (ICN) Alliance of Student and Early Career Nurses (SECN Alliance) met for the first time early this month, attended by more than 50 SECN Alliance representatives from countries in all six World Health Organization regions. The SECN Alliance, an innovative new ICN body, aims to amplify the voices of student and early career nurses and enhance their influence on relevant issues in the work of ICN and its members, enhancing ICN’s strong commitment to student and early career nurses.

The Alliance will ensure that the voice of student and early career nurses continues to be heard by ICN and the wider global nursing community, offering guidance to the ICN Board to address relevant issues in global health and nursing policy. Through the Alliance, student and early career nurses will be empowered and supported to meet the needs and promote the well-being of the world’s population, and the current and future nursing profession.

ICN Senior Policy Adviser Erica Burton, who chaired the meeting, and has been leading the work to create the SECN Alliance, said it was a momentous occasion for ICN.

Addressing the participants, Ms Burton said, “You have been carefully selected to represent your national nurses’ association, to represent the students and early career nurses in your countries and, most importantly, [to represent] the future of nursing.”

ICN President Dr Pamela Cipriano said, ““This is a really important inflection point in terms of how we come together to advance leadership across all of the global health issues, and the work within the International Council of Nurses. This new Alliance provides for active engagement and inclusion of students and early career nurses as we learn together and exchange ideas.”

Dr Cipriano added that the SECN Alliance would serve as a vital source of information from across the profession to help ICN to really understand the issues and to discuss solutions together.

“It will help us find out what people in their senior years in the profession need to know of those who are on the front lines, who have just come out of educational programmes, who are looking at how to shape the future. We welcome the insights and strategies of emerging leaders participating in our work to strengthen nursing and global health.”

ICN Chief Executive Officer Howard Catton congratulated the SECN Alliance representatives and emphasized how crucial their role will be to ICN.

“We have always had students and early career nurses involved and engaged in the work of ICN, but we need to take that to another level. We need to step it up, because nurses have never been more obviously important to global health. From ageing populations to NCDs, to climate change, to conflicts, to public health prevention, nurses are absolutely critical.”

Mr Catton told participants that he wanted the views, advice and influence of students and early career nurses to be taken into the heart of ICN’s Board.

“You are going to be working really closely with the ICN Board, advising them on critical issues that affect you and the statements and policies they should be considering. Your voice and your influence have never been more important, and this is one of the most powerful ways to get your voices heard, because the mandate of ICN is to be the global voice of nursing.”

Student and early career nurses who are interested in becoming involved or to keep updated about the Alliance should contact [email protected].

Members of the SECN Alliance will meet in person at the ICN Congress in Helsinki in June 2025.