Our achievements

We are proud to support nurses, midwives and health care assistants to deliver the best possible patient care. We do this by representing them and supporting their professional development throughout their careers, while promoting the unique and vital contribution they make to patients' wellbeing and recovery. We are the largest professional nursing union in the world and we use our strength and influence to shape health policy both nationally and internationally.

Our achievements therefore can vary from enabling an individual nurse to return to work following a period of stress-related absence, to successfully introducing a European Union directive on the safe disposal of sharps: needles and blades used in medical and nursing care. It is as a result of our campaigning that patients and health care workers are now better protected from injury and the spread of blood-borne infections.

Current campaigns

Within the UK we work to influence politicians, employers and health organisations to adopt policies that will protect or improve patient care and make optimum use of skilled nursing staff. The RCN and NHS trade unions have negotiated a three-year pay deal with the Government in England. Find out more about our current campaigns.