The Role of Operating Department Practitioners (ODP)
The perioperative environment is an acute area of health care that is often perceived as a task orientated conveyer belt that exists behind closed doors. Yet this highly complex and pressurised area relies on highly skilled individuals working closely together to care for the surgical patient. Within this environment are numerous variables that can affect excellence in perioperative practice.
Perioperative care is a paradox. It involves the caring for a human being that commonly has either has no autonomy, cognition or individuality. The individual does not know, and is unlikely to ever know, what care they received. Perioperative staff are bound legally, contractually, professionally and morally to deliver care that the individual would both consent to and feel ‘cared for’. There is a risk of a mismatch between the individual and the practitioner.
Perioperative care is a paradox. It involves the caring for a human being that commonly has either has no autonomy, cognition or individuality. The individual does not know, and is unlikely to ever know, what care they received. Perioperative staff are bound legally, contractually, professionally and morally to deliver care that the individual would both consent to and feel ‘cared for’. There is a risk of a mismatch between the individual and the practitioner.
Care, communication, teamwork and safety are common perioperative vocabulary with the much needed growing emphasis of Human Factors. Operating Department Practitioners (ODPs) work in the three different areas of the operating theatre: anaesthetics, surgery and post anaesthetics (recovery). Their role is to bring together the care of the patient with the underpinning technical knowledge needed to enable the anaesthetist and surgeon to carry out their medical interventions. ODPs need to both support routine care of the patient as well as be ever looking for – what can be – rapid deterioration in a patient’s status. ODPs need to have a high level of situational awareness, a thorough understanding of the pharmacology, anaesthetic equipment, surgical anatomy/procedures, the ability to make rapid assessment and decisions together with the aptitude to care for a person and met their individual needs whilst managing the challenges of a diverse team to make the best provision for the individual person.
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BU is a Disability Two Ticks Employer and has signed up to the Mindful Employer charter. Information about the accessibility of University buildings can be found on the BU DisabledGo webpages This email is intended only for the person to whom it is addressed and may contain confidential information. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender and delete this email, which must not be copied, distributed or disclosed to any other person. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Bournemouth University or its subsidiary companies. Nor can any contract be formed on behalf of the University or its subsidiary companies via email.
