RCN Council health practitioner members
In 2011, RCN members voted to establish two 'health practitioner' seats on RCN Council for the very first time. These seats represent the RCN's health care assistant (HCA) and assistant practitioner (AP) members. Two new members of Council have now been elected, and took up their positions at the RCN annual general meeting on 17 October 2012 (see the full results of the health practitioner member of Council election).
Brenda McIlmurray
Term of office: October 2012 - December 2015
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.
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 Cardwell
Term of office: October 2012 - December 2013
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.
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.