Meet your new Council members

Published: 20 September 2012

Brenda McIlmurray and David Cardwell have been elected to be the first health care assistant (HCA) or assistant practitioner (AP) members of RCN Council.

They topped the poll to decide who would become RCN Council members following last year’s historic member vote where HCAs and APs became full members of the College for the first time.
Brenda and David will take up their positions as health practitioner members of Council at the close of the RCN annual general meeting on 17 October.

Brenda has been an HCA for 15 years working in the Southern Trust in Northern Ireland. She is an RCN learning representative, and has been the HCA and AP Committee member for Northern Ireland where she took a particular interest in promoting learning to HCAs and APs working in the independent sector.

Brenda said she was thrilled and was struggling to believe she had been elected to Council. Her term of office will last until December 2015.
She said: "I was so surprised to have been elected. Having HCAs and APs elected to Council represents a whole new world for HCAs and APs in the RCN. With Council's guidance and the support of our members, I see the voice and position of HCAs and APs going from strength to strength over the coming years.

"My passion is regulation and adequate training standards for HCAs and APs as every person we look after is someone's family member and they deserve the best."

Read Brenda’s election statement.

David has had a range of roles in his 17 years in the NHS, ranging from a nursing auxiliary to his current role as an operating department practitioner at Weston General Hospital in Somerset.

His RCN roles include safety representative, Perioperative Forum committee member and executive officer of the Somerset branch. His term of office on Council will last until 2013.

David said: “Thank you for voting me as one of your first health practitioner council members for HCAs and APs. Please share your thoughts with me so I can take them to the national RCN table.

“I would like to see a big health practitioner membership campaign and to see more health practitioners becoming stewards, safety representatives, learning representatives and forum committee members – and potentially Council members later on.”

He is a regular at RCN Congress and has spoken and seconded debates in the past.

Read David’s election statement.

See the full result of the health practitioner member of Council election.