Students at Congress

RCN Congress 2012 will take place at Harrogate International Centre from 13-17 May and we hope to see as many of you there as possible.

It is all change this year. Instead of having one dedicated day for HCAs and APs, and another day for students, we will be running a programme of activities for both groups repeated over three days (Monday to Wednesday). We hope this approach makes it easier for you to negotiate time to come and gives you the opportunity to spend more than one day at Congress.

The programme will start with separate plenary sessions for students or HCAs and APs. There will then be time to listen to the keynote speeches in the main hall and to visit the exhibition.

After lunch there will be a series of workshops on key topics including dementia, caring for people with hearing loss, end of life care, eye conditions, communicating with people with learning difficulties and the RCN's Principles of Nursing Practice. The workshops will be fun, interactive and aimed at providing delegates with useful hints and tools in order to assist them in their delivery of patient care. The same series will be repeated after a tea break so that everyone gets an opportunity to attend two different workshops each day they are at Congress, whether they come for one, two or three days.

All HCAs, APs and students are invited to join us at the end of each of day (4.30-6pm) for coffee and cake to celebrate good practice. This will be a great opportunity for you to network with colleagues and meet the RCN team, as well as high profile members of RCN Council and staff. There will also be a poster exhibition and a fun competition with a prize draw to round up the day.

Poster exhibition

Nursing has had some bad press recently, but we want to celebrate the good work that you all do every day. All you need to do is tell us about your good news stories – examples of good practice that you have been involved in that celebrate nursing and caring as a career, and celebrate team work. Just write no more than 150 words and add some pictures if possible, without compromising confidentiality of course.

Please send in your posters on an A4 sheet  by Friday 13 April 2012 – we will enlarge them and display them for everyone to see and enjoy. Please email your posters to hca@rcn.org.uk or send in the post to Lisa Cork, Nursing Department, RCN, 20 Cavendish Square, London W1G 0RN.

You can register your interest now using the Congress website and there is also information on booking accommodation in Harrogate if you plan to stay for a few days.

We look forward to seeing you in Harrogate and if you need further details, please contact hca@rcn.org.uk