The Indiana Center for Nursing (ICN) believes that all persons, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, age, socioeconomic status, and sexual orientation should have equitable access to quality health care in order to promote a culture of health in our society.
 

Unfortunately, evidence indicates that health disparities continue to exist in our country. When disparities in health exist, we all lose. We believe the citizens of this country have an individual and collective responsibility to eliminate these disparities and promote equitable quality health care for all persons. We encourage all nurses and agencies to educate themselves in order to take action to eliminate structures that maintain health disparities. As nurses, we must speak up and add our voices to the discussion to improve health equity and outcomes for those we serve. The ICN explicitly denounces acts of systemic and individual discrimination and racism within healthcare organizations and in the larger society.

We continue to support health care professionals and community partners who join in the intentional pursuit of health care equity. Ultimately, our actions must result in the elimination of health disparities. To that end, the Indiana Center for Nursing promotes programs such as the Indiana Nursing Education Engagement and Diversity Statewide Initiative. This program focuses on increasing diversity of the nursing pipeline so that it is reflective of the clients we serve. Increasing the number of diverse nurses will positively impact trust in our healthcare system and improve health care outcomes.