The Role Of The Operating Department Practitioner

When I was first introduced to the role of the ODP, in November 2012, I was immediately drawn to it because of how perfectly it fitted my personality and the position I had found myself in whilst working for an electrical retailer. I had become frustrated with just how many jobs I was expected to complete on daily basis, despite it not being part of my job description and ultimately not being my responsibility; even though I enjoyed doing the tasks and the challenges I was given. The ODP profession is designed to be multiple roles within one job description primarily focussing on the patient’s current place within their perioperitive journey, for example a ‘Scrub ODP’ would find the patient during the ‘Surgical Phase’ of their journey assisting the surgeon during the operation (Health Education England, 2014b). I find this regular shift in roles and responsibilities to be very refreshing and exciting, I feel it would be very difficult to become complacent in this profession and would ensure no two days are the same. Given the nature of the profession and how many pieces would make the puzzle of a patient’s preoperative journey, I will be expected to work as part of a very skilled team, and work with people that I share common interests and goals with; something I would enjoy being part of and would be eager to learn from those

The Perioperative Care Collaborative (PCC) defines the ASP role “as the role undertaken by a registered perioperative practitioner

Operation Department Practitioner is very challenging and a dedicating career, but I am ready for this challenge because the reward for the work I do is the gratitude in the eyes in the people I have looked after. I understand how difficult is to build trust between people, but I believe that over the years during which I worked as a Health Care Assistance I have the satisfactory level

They set up the instruments and equipment needed for the particular operation to be performed. They have to be able to anticipate what the surgeon will need and hand the instrument to him or her when required (Aims Education, 2015).

One may object that surgical technologist does not perform direct patient care and that they are expected to work under the guidance and responsibility of the perioperative nurse, so there is no need for regulation and need for certification. This is in some extent untrue as every surgery in today's operating rooms is performed in unison by a team of highly skilled and dedicated medical professionals and part of that team is the surgical technologist. The preoperative arena is divided and separated into a multiple area of responsibility that need to be manned and managed physically and mentally at all time. In relation to sports, an effective team is one that all members

4) O.R. Nurse: Was directly involved in the events leading up to the sentinel event. The O.R. nurse is responsible for assisting the surgeon in the surgical suite and providing continuity of care throughout the surgical procedure from pre-op to post-op. The surgery was completed safely and successfully and the patient was handed over to PACU for recovery appropriately; however, the O.R. nurse did not verify that all relevant information was obtained from

The pre-op nurse did not pass the information on when giving report to the OR nurse. The OR nurse is responsible for giving addition hand off information both about the patient along the information from the procedure she all so communicates with the surgeon during the procedure. It was during this interview that some insight about a breakdown in communication between departments became apparent.

operate as a service provider. From this I will be able to gain a greater understanding of patient care. This collaboration between disciplines and the resulting improvement for the patient was identified by Hill (2006). Since I have started working within the NHS over the last year, I have had more opportunities to work with members of different professions both in the NHS and voluntary sector. This experience has helped me develop a better understanding of how patient care is made up of a multitude of smaller parts.

Despite the challenges, this facilitating experice has instilled me a degree of appreciation of many staff who work hard behind the scene to ahcieve the common goal of providing the best care possible to patients within the scarce resources. It was possible to see how good working relationship with other disciplines can improve overall efficiency.

The objective of this reflection is to explore and reflect upon a situation from a clinical placement on an orthopedic unit. The incident showed that I did not provide safe, timely and competent care for my patient when the oxygen saturation was low. Furthermore, this reflection will include a description of the incident, and I will conclude with explaining what I have learned from the experience and how it will change my future actions.

With this in mind, I entered my last clinical rotation on the OR floor in a large teaching hospital. It contained 19 operating room suites and personnel included a VP of surgical services, a unit manager, a supply manager, an education coordinator, a few supervisors, and an array of surgeons, anesthesiologists, circulating nurses, scrub nurses/technicians, unit clerks, and surgical aides. My preceptor trained me in the position of circulating nurse. As the circulating nurse, I acted as the patient’s advocate while the patient was under the influence of anesthesia. During surgery, I was delegated the task of anticipating needs and trusted to use my clinical judgement when split second decisions were required.

* Hand washing is the most important method of preventing the spread of infection by contact (Ayliffe et al 1999). The Nottingham University Trust Policy on Hand Hygiene (2009) states that there are three types of hand hygiene, the first is ‘routine hand hygiene’ which involves the use of soap and water for 15 – 20 seconds or the application of alcohol hand rub until the hand are dry. The second is ‘hand disinfection’ which should be used prior to an aseptic procedure by washing with soap and water and applying alcohol hand rub afterwards. The third is ‘surgical hand washing’ which is the application of a microbial agent to the hands and wrists for two minutes. In addition to which a sterile, disposable brush may be used for the first surgical hand wash of the day although continued use will encourage colonisation of microbes. The third example is the most appropriate to any O.D.P undertaking the surgical role as it is the best way for the surgical team to eliminate transient flora and reduce resident skin flora (World Health Organization 2010). The first and second are important to any O.D.P undertaking any other role within the Operating Department as this is the best way to reduce the transient microbial flora without necessarily affecting the resident skin flora

“The Process Improvement in Stanford Hospital’s Operating Room” case has many issues when it comes to regards to its existing instrument provisioning process taking place within the Operating Room (OR) of Stanford’s Hospital. This process entails getting instruments ready for a surgery in the OR and the cleansing of these instruments afterwards; however, there are many problems that arise in this process.

First everyone had to put on a mask, wear surgical head covers, proper scrubs, and shoe covers. Inside the operation room, the surgeon and scrub tech had to put on a sterile attire, which included sterile scrubs,gloves, and equipment because they were the first people to have contact with patient. The circulator or documenting nurse and anesthesiologist were around the sterile field (aseptic technique) without any contact with the patient whatsoever. As you would have guessed, the surgeon was the one who performed the surgery with the help of the scrub tech and monitored by the circulator nurse and anesthesiologist. The main duties of the circulator nurse was to document everything during the surgery from what medications used to how many sterile dressings were used, proving supplies to the surgeon and the scrub tech as needed,and making sure the room was prepare for the assigned surgery. This nurse also provides conform measurements for the patient while in the operation room. For instance, there was a patient who was too big for the operation bed, so the circulator nurse had to find additional supplies that would prevent the patient from sliding down the bed. Nurses always provide the finest education towards their line of duty but also take the time to teach those people who starting the nursing

Throughout the industry of outpatient surgery, there have been many changes in our country’s health care and economy. These changes have increased the challenges of improving or upgrading operations, improving quality and satisfaction, accumulating revenue, coping with ever-changing competition as well as completing business and professional goals (Gandolf, 2010).