SURGICAL CARE PRACTITIONER

Surgical Care Practitioner

Surgical Care Practitioner

Introduction

Non-medically trained practitioners have been employed as aides in surgical perform for more than two decades. Surgical care practitioners (SCPs) are an increasing group of professionals, drawn from nursing and the akin wellbeing professions. Amongst other functions, SCPs can supply a range of surgical methods including a 'minor surgical' service, proposing patients operative removal of a range of lesions encompassing lipomas, sebaceous cysts and naevi. The need for this function has become clear-cut over several years and has developed for a number of reasons. The new UK nationwide wellbeing Service has conceived a range of new service developments encompassing changes within the function of doctors which is taking location beside changes to juvenile doctors' teaching.

The European employed Time Directive (EWTD) was implemented in August 2004 limiting maximum every week hours for junior doctors to 58, which from 2009 will be decreased farther to 48 h with added restrictions on rest time between shifts.1 This has commanded to a re-definition of traditional functions and recognised a need for additional non-medical practitioners to provide an expanded range of services. teaching programmes for some such functions (including peri-operative and surgical care practitioners) have been evolved and assessed within our institution.

In supplement, there is extending force to decrease waiting times for operative methods at the identical time as improving patient alternative. present statistics show that nationally in December 2004 there were 858,000 patients on the waiting list for an operation with an mean delay of 9 months.2 The UK Government's target is to decrease this wait to 6 months and eventually farther to 18 weeks.

The doctor practitioner role is currently well established in many areas with day-case pre-assessment clinics often doctor-led.3,4 Urology doctor practitioners have been shown to be effective in running cystoscopy lists5,6 and nurse-led endoscopy is now utilised inside numerous hospital trusts with guidelines made by a employed party set up by the British Society of Gastroenterologists for nurse endoscopists.7,8 Surgical care practitioners are furthermore utilised for saphenous vein harvesting in cardiothoracic surgery.9,10

The surgical care practitioner at St Mary's

The SCP at St Mary's Hospital has been running the rapidaccess, one-stop clinic beside the currently established consultant-led service since August 2001. The SCP's background is as an skilled theatre sister in general and laparoscopic surgery who has completed a university-based course which allows experienced theatre practitioners to take an expanded role at the operating table, providing skilled surgical aid under the direct supervision of the surgeon. In supplement, an intensive in-house informative events at Imperial College was formulated by the surgical team to a grade comparable to that of a newly trained dwelling officer. Other techniques came to for teaching reasons include the rudimentary Surgical abilities course at The regal College of Surgeons of England and the course for Autonomous perform for Nurses. Validation is furthermore continuing by present surgical advisors in our believe. This is achieved utilising some distinct methods:

Observational - both clinical and simulated environment

Simulated patient and truth setting

DVD recorded

repsonse from observer and simulated ...