About Us

About Us

Female nurse checks out baby girl with a flashlight

Our Vision​

Transforming communities in Washington State through increased access to quality nursing care.

Woman nurse showing young woman a book as she points

Our Mission

WCN supports a healthy Washington by engaging nurses’ expertise, influence, and perspective and by building a diverse, highly qualified nurse workforce to meet future demands.

Nurses tending to patient in bed

Did you know?

Every nurse licensed in Washington State pays an $8 surcharge on their license to WCN.

What Your Funds Accomplish

  • Providing Compelling Data: The WCN uses data to provide an accurate picture of Washington’s nursing workforce to inform health workforce policy in the state.
  • Increasing Workforce Diversity: The WCN works to increase the diversity of the nursing workforce to better reflect the people of Washington and promote health equity.
  • Promoting Nursing Leadership: The WCN works to enhance nursing career mobility and nursing leadership development opportunities for Washington’s RNs.
  • Advancing Nursing Education: The WCN collaborates with nursing educators and stakeholders to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of nursing education and articulation in Washington State.
  • Promoting nursing as a profession: The WCN works to educate and inform K-12 students and the general public about careers in nursing

Our History

Nursing leaders in Washington State have been working since the late 1990s to address the need for nurses’ specialized education and skills.

The Nursing Summit in 2001 resulted in a Strategic Plan for Nursing to ensure that we have enough nurses to care for our citizens–the Washington State Strategic Plan for Nursing (WSSPN), which was adopted by the Washington Nursing Leadership Council (composed of CNEWS, NWONE, NCQAC, WLN, WSNA).

In response to this plan, the Washington Center for Nursing was created in 2003 as the statewide nursing workforce organization. Since then, WCN has worked on a variety of nursing projects, including the Master Plan for Nursing Education and the organization of regional stakeholder meetings on the Nurse of the Future.

WCN is a non-profit 501(c)(3).

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