The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has launched a consultation with its members over changes to its membership categories.
The consultation opened during RCN Congress 2019, and will run until the end of July.
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This first stage involves collating thoughts and ideas from all members on the current membership categories.
These views will then be used by RCN Council to ‘build a vision of what the future membership of the RCN should be’. Council will then propose changes to the current membership categories and subscription plans.
The RCN have given a number of possible solutions to the current categories and subscriptions, including:
- A single category of membership
- Introducing subscription plans relating to a members’ income
- Introducing affiliate membership for members of the team who do not report directly to a nurse
- Removing the link between subscription plans and election to governance roles – only full members of the RCN can stand for governance positions
As it stands, the RCN has three categories of membership – nurse member, health practitioner member (for healthcare workers operating under the supervision of a nurse), and student member.
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Within these three categories are various subscription options. For example, a nurse member can be a full member of the RCN, paying £196.65 per year, or they could be a retired nurse member paying £10 per year.
Plans to change the categories come as a result of numerous anomalies and issues encountered by the current system, which has produced instances where nursing associates in training fall under the health practitioner category and pay £98 per year, while nurse apprentices are considered student members and pay just £10 per year.
During a session at RCN Congress, ideas were discussed surrounding the issue of retired members being required to pay the full subscription fee of £196.65 in order to stand for senior positions. Discussions also touched on whether to open up the healthcare practitioner membership to other non-nurse workers.
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Geoff Earl, RCN Council member for Scotland, said during the session: ‘We’re not looking to pre-empt your feedback at this point. The list of solutions are just ideas, and we welcome any others you have.’
RCN members can give their feedback using an online form.
