Meeting of the Minds at the International Council of Nurses’ Congress 2025: Roadmap for Advancing Collaboration in Nursing Research among International Organizations

The purpose of this editorial is to generate concrete strategies for advancing collaboration in nursing research among international organizations—specifically CJNR Board members, the International Council of Nurses (ICN), and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). Drawing on conversations and experiences shared at the ICN Congress in Helsinki, Finland in June 2025, this editorial emphasizes how CJNR, as a peer-reviewed research journal, can serve as the scholarly hub for collecting, reviewing, and disseminating research produced through these organizational partnerships.

The International Council of Nurses (ICN) is a federation of more than 140 national nursing associations that represent nurses and the nursing profession globally. Every two years, the ICN hosts an international Congress, bringing together nursing professionals from around the world to discuss best practices, share the latest evidence, and address pressing issues facing the profession. This biennial event coincides with the meeting of the Council of National Nursing Association Representatives (CNR), the governing body of the ICN made up of representatives from national associations. At every Congress, the definitions of “nursing” and “nurse” are updated to reflect the dynamic and transformational nature of the profession. Attendees engage in knowledge exchange, networking, and reflection, leaving inspired about the future of nursing and empowered with pride in their profession. Each Congress has a theme, with the 2025 theme being “Nursing Power to Change the World.” It was at this Congress that strong international collaborations were reinforced between the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), other attendees, and the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (CJNR).

Among the national nursing associations represented at the ICN Congress, the RCN stands out as one of the most influential. As the largest nursing union and professional nursing body in the world, the RCN represents over 670,000 nurses, student nurses, midwives, and nursing support workers in the United Kingdom (UK) and internationally. Its responsibilities are wide-ranging: representing the professional interests of nursing staff, supporting members with services such as legal and financial assistance, protecting diversity and inclusion in the workplace, lobbying governments to improve patient care, shaping healthcare policy, and promoting lifelong professional development. The RCN also advances nursing research and ensures high standards of practice through its extensive library archives and its Institute of Nursing Excellence. The RCN's active engagement at the ICN Congress not only highlighted these contributions but also accelerated global recognition.

While the RCN contributes a strong organizational presence within the ICN, the Canadian Journal of Nursing Research (CJNR) represents the academic and scholarly dimension of international nursing collaboration. CJNR serves Canadian and global nursing communities by disseminating research on nursing science, education, leadership, policy, models of care, health services, and health systems. By accepting submissions from authors worldwide, the journal advances evidence-based nursing knowledge and practice across borders. Its participation in the ICN Congress complements the organizational leadership of associations like the RCN by ensuring that cutting-edge research informs global discussions. In doing so, CJNR strengthens the bridge between practice and scholarship, helping the nursing profession collectively envision—and achieve—the future of healthcare.

These three organizations—the ICN, RCN, and CJNR—share a common goal: the sharing of nursing knowledge across the globe. Deliberate collaboration among them would accelerate the advancement and dissemination of nursing research. One strategy to achieve this is the current initiation of joint editorial initiatives and cross-publication. Increased submissions from ICN and RCN members to CJNR could lead to the creation of special publications in partnership with both organizations, ensuring that relevant nursing research is disseminated globally. This would facilitate the exchange of evidence-based practice findings between the organizations and broaden their reach to audiences beyond those typically engaged through ICN or RCN's own publications. Research published in CJNR could also be distilled into summaries, briefs, or accessible articles and distributed via ICN and RCN networks, extending the visibility of findings to practitioners, educators, and policymakers worldwide.

Future strategies include the potential establishment of an international research consortium. A formal partnership among the three organizations, dedicated to collaborative nursing research, would enable the pooling of resources to conduct large-scale, multinational studies on priority issues. Quarterly virtual meetings involving ICN, RCN, and CJNR board members could provide a venue for discussions on funding, data access, research staffing, publication planning, and other logistics to ensure the effective function of the partnership. This structure would ensure that CJNR becomes the hub for disseminating the consortium's outputs, maintaining rigorous peer review while amplifying global reach. Collaborative events such as online webinars, symposiums, and in-person conferences could be organized in conjunction with the ICN Congress to maximize participation and visibility of this collective body of knowledge.

Leveraging the ICN's policy influence and the RCN's advocacy and lobbying capacity would translate CJNR-published research into action, standards, and healthcare policy. Developing evidence-based briefs collaboratively and presenting them at the ICN Congress or to national governments and organizations would help ensure that the research disseminated through CJNR informs decision-making and drives meaningful improvements in nursing practice and patient care globally.

To ensure effective international collaboration, it would be important to establish goals and other responsibilities of each organization. Inclusion of national nursing associations as well as researchers from diverse backgrounds would guarantee a wide variety of perspectives in decision-making and execution. Aligning these collaborative efforts with international healthcare priorities would help achieve maximum global impact. Finally, highlighting and celebrating the successes of such collaborations would inspire further partnerships among other international nursing organizations and research journals.

The collaboration of international nursing organizations like the ICN and RCN with scholarly journals such as CJNR offers an extraordinary opportunity to strengthen the nursing profession through the deliberate sharing of knowledge and research. By combining organizational leadership with scholarly publishing, these partnerships can advance nursing practice through joint editorial initiatives, collaborative research, digital knowledge-sharing, and policy translation. When accomplished effectively, such collaboration ensures that nursing knowledge is not confined by borders but is shared, applied, and amplified worldwide—empowering nurses to change the world and impact health outcomes for the global population we serve.