Accountability for HCAs and assistant practitioners

While much is written about accountability, very little of this is directed towards assisting healthcare assistants (HCAs) and assistant practitioners (APs) to understand the framework of accountability that they operate within. Many registered professionals are also confused about the degree of accountability that HCAs and APs hold, often wrongly assuming that being currently unregistered makes HCAs and APs unaccountable. This article intends to outline some of the key issues that surround accountability so that APs and HCAs can use this to guide decision making and demonstrate accountability in their practice.