National Operating Department Practitioners’ day (#ODPday): What an amazing day we had!!

We were out in force on Monday 14 May for the first ever National ODP day and a great day was had by all. ODPs, student ODPs and ODP Lecturers all proudly promoting our profession on campus at University of Hull, along with at St. Stephens shopping centre in the city centre.

The awareness of the ODP profession went wild on social media throughout the day, bringing together ODPs from across the UK and those who have moved internationally.

There was outstanding support from national companies and the public we met at the shopping centre, which created a most enjoyable and enthusiastic day for us all!

Well done to all involved and a huge thank you to all who supported us…roll on next year!

If you would like to read more about ODPs reads this and this and this!

Natalie Teal

ODP showcase seminar

For the second year running, our students have produced a collection of amazing and innovative service improvement projects which were showcased at a student conference.  We already have students that have been approached about continuing their projects after qualifying and we can’t wait to see our soon-to-be-practitioners out making a difference to perioperative care.  Well done 3rd years! 

Student ODP Showcase Conference

The showcase conference was very successful and the whole ODP team are incredibly proud of the 3^rdyears.  Feedback from visitors and other students was incredibly positive and has certainly highlighted that the innovative projects being proposed by the students would be well received in clinical practice.  We had a whole range of different ideas put forward from developing a policy for surgical first assistants, to simulation training, mandatory training packages, information leaflets and app based developments for anxiety and education purposes.  We sincerely hope that our students enjoyed the chance to showcase their projects and that they will take these forward into their future careers and develop them.

Operating Department Practitioners visit to Army Medical Services

We had a very successful day  at the Army Medical Services Training Centre (AMSTC), Strensall, York.  We took 20 ODP students to show them all the training facilities that the army offers there.

We were also shown the specific facility and given an overview of the training that military personnel who are being deployed to Sierra Leone, on Operational Gritrock to help with the Ebola crisis go through.

They informed us that this training facility is known all over the world as a place that excels in military training as it has the ability to mirror that environment to which the army will be deployed to i.e. it can regulate the temperature and  humidity and other environment factors.

The students also had the opportunity to go into the training Chinook helicopter that simulate the conditions that medics who are part of the Medical Evacuation Response Team work in when caring for wounded causalities in the air.  They also experienced the cramped dark space they have to work in with the noise that the rota blades make.  They were also shown the casualty simulation facilities that assist in training so that they are able to care and treat wounded personnel the minute they arrived at a location.  It was an excellent day and all the students appeared to enjoy themselves.  It was a great network opportunity for the Faculty.

Publication by ODP team

Rebecca Straughan and Deborah Robinson have published:

Rebecca Straughan

Straughan R, Robinson D (2014) Exploring the professional development of the ODP role ODP 2:7 352-355