The HCA is a not-for-profit organization whose vision is to unite all business sectors of healthcare communicators and become the leading association in this field.
Their continuous mission is to support and represent all regional, global, and national healthcare communicators. The HCA strives to provide better opportunities for education and development among participating professionals, along with mentoring opportunities, and allow businesses to learn from and lean on each other for growth.
HCA values - collaboration, professionalism, integrity, responsibility, and commitment, align directly with their roadmap to success. This path begins with the uniting of healthcare communicators to set the standards of what it means to communicate in the medical field. For those participants, they provide unique resources to allow for further research and growth within individual teams. The HCA also believes in one leading voice, and they want their association and those involved with it to become that leader. They emphasize situations and values that they want to bring to the forefront of conversations. Examples of those include diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The HCA also highlights the importance of focusing on the future. Rather than continuously being stuck on current challenges, always be reminded of the future of healthcare communications and how present work will be beneficial for future leaders of the field.
Across the board, the HCA is very passionate about uniting communication within the healthcare world. In order to do that they are really focusing on innovation, creativity, and expansion. Joining their team seems to be a free and simple process with little to no experience needed. They are searching for more voices and participants to follow their mission and keep advancing healthcare communication.
Though joining is free, the HCA prides itself as a non-profit organization with excellent development and mentoring opportunities, however, all conferences and continuing professional development courses provide a marginal price discount for members.
The CPD courses aim to instruct on how to be a better leader and communicator, not necessarily a better healthcare communicator. Does this affect their member numbers or their entire mission to possible prospects? Or is it viewed as a stepping stone to becoming a better healthcare communicator?