Since 1975, the National Association of Hispanic Nurses (NAHN) has been the nation’s leading professional society for Latino nurses. With a growing membership and more than 40 local chapters, NAHN, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, represents the voices of Latino nurses throughout the United States.
NAHN is devoted to promoting safe, quality health care delivery to Latino communities and individuals, and we recognize excellence among Latino nurses, provide formal and informal mentoring opportunities, and generally serve as a center of excellence for our members. Our goal is to create a cadre of highly-qualified Latino nurses by advancing educational, professional and leadership skills and opportunities for our membership. In addition, we work to recruit additional Latinos into the nursing profession because, while Latinos represent 18% of the US population, less than 7% of the nursing workforce is of Latino descent.
NAHN members advocate, educate, volunteer, seek partnerships, and conduct programming in the Latino community to improve outcomes, elevate literacy, heighten education, and influence policy. We also work collaboratively with others to improve health equity and to create a future in which everyone regardless of race or ethnicity has opportunities to be healthy.
Our Impact
NAHN addresses the largest healthcare challenges facing Latinos using NAHN members who uniquely understand the challenges to providing better healthcare to America’s fastest growing segment of the population -- the Latino community. Our organization:
- Connects culturally competent healthcare professionals to Hispanic health issues
- Projects a unified voice for Hispanic health issues
- Concentrates efforts to target disease states and decrease health disparities among Latinos
- Raises awareness and support for effective health policy and programs
- Promotes the nursing profession to increase engagement, retention and prepare nurses to lead change
- Expands awareness and reach through the implementation of community programs
- Enhances cultural competence to improve Latino patient care
