In April this year, ILC members Alison Kitson, Jack Needleman, Yvonne Wengstrom and Rebecca Feo, together with Eileen Breslin, Dean and Professor, The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, School of Nursing, attended the Association of Academic Health Centres Global Issues Forum in Washington, DC. The forum brought together an international group of healthcare leaders and experts to discuss how academic health centres can best include the social determinants of health in their education, research and clinical programs. Alison, Jack, Yvonne and Eileen delivered a panel focusing on ways to harness the huge potential of the nursing workforce to impact positively on these social determinants and to improve care more generally.