The RCN Health Care Assistant and Assistant Practitioner Network

The RCN Health Care Assistant (HCA) and Assistant Practitioner (AP) Network was set up to give you the opportunity to get your voice heard and share best practice.

The network is open to RCN members and is free to join, and aims to:

• establish good communication links between the members and the RCN and to provide a voice for HCAs and APs
• enable HCA and AP members to get involved in opportunities such as reviewing resources and engaging in relevant surveys

On joining, you will receive a welcome pack with lots of useful materials for you and your colleagues.

You can join the HCA and AP network online or by downloading the HCA and AP joining postcard (PDF 339KB) [see how to access PDF files].

To encourage other RCN HCA and AP members to sign up to the network you can download an HCA and AP network poster (PDF 745KB) for your workplace.

What does being a network member involve?

Being a member of the RCN HCA and AP network is as flexible as you want to make it and you can get as involved as much or as little as you like. We really hope that you will get involved, and signpost your colleagues to RCN resources and let them know what is happening in the network. The more HCA and AP members we have, the more powerful your voice will be and the louder you will be heard.

HCAs and APs also have an RCN Health Practitioner Committee. Committee members may contact you if they are running a project and want to find out how HCAs and APs feel about certain issues. If you wish to contact your region or country’s committee member email the HCA team and we will ask them to contact you.

Finally, we want to hear your thoughts and ideas. If you have any suggestions or comments, let us know at hca@rcn.org.uk. We will be building on our resources and support for HCAs and APs and want to be guided by you. Keep a watch on the website and don’t be afraid to tell us if you feel we can make changes to our site or our products.

We are also very interested in your experiences – changes you have made, how you have developed your role, and plans you have within your team for example. Don’t keep them to yourselves. Sharing examples of best practice helps to raise the profile of the role and demonstrates to everyone just how valuable HCAs and APs are to the nursing team. Anything you write and send in will be considered for inclusion in the RCN's quarterly e-newsletter for HCAs and APs.