Nursing associates

In England, the nursing associate (NA) is a member of the nursing team who helps bridge the gap between health and care assistants and registered nurses. NAs work with people of all ages, in a range of settings in health and social care and across the fields of nursing, to help build the capacity of the nursing workforce and the delivery of high-quality care.

NAs are practitioners in their own right. The NA part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register opened on 28 January 2019. The NMC must ensure that registrants have the skills that are required to care for people safely, with integrity, expertise, respect and compassion.

Those applying to be admitted to the register must demonstrate that they have met the NMC's standards, have undertaken the required programme hours and have experienced a suitable range of placements. NAs must make a self-declaration that their health and character will enable them to practise safely and effectively, confirm that they have (or will have when they practise) appropriate indemnity arrangements, inform the NMC if they have any pending criminal charges, cautions or convictions, and tell the NMC if another regulator has ever said that their fitness to practise is impaired