Operating Department Practitioner

ODP (Theatre Practitioner)

An Operating Department Practitioner or Theatre Practitioner is an integral part of a team working in operating theatre suites within hospitals all over the world, providing peri-operative care to a range of patients from emergency to elective operative needs. We work alongside a number of different healthcare professionals ie; theatre nurses, anaesthetists, surgeons and radiographers. Our purpose is to provide the highest standards of care to all patients during the transition through their operating theatre journey, using extensive knowledge and broad experience along with good team working skills to achieve this goal.

We train to work within three areas of the operating theatre teams: anaesthetics, scrub role and recovery (post anaesthetic care unit 'PACU'); and we can be found in many other areas.

Here at Lincoln we work in the following areas:

There are many other specialties and outlying areas we work in and is dependant upon the size or particular specialty (ie, neurology or cardiac) of the hospital you will have a career in.

We are currently in great demand as a health professional and all levels and ages of candidates are training every year to become highly skilled members of the theatre teams. Good communication skills are essential as you deal with all levels of staff and varied understanding and ages of patients. We also provide a 24 hour seven day a week emergency cover for: theatres, accident and emergency and obstetrics.

History of ODP

Operating Department Practitioners have worked within operating theatres under one title or another for almost as long as operations have been taking place. In the early days surgeons were considered masters of their trade if they could amputate a limb in double quick time. There was no anaesthetic, other than alcohol, and patients were held down on the operating table by the orderlies. Possibly the first ODPs?

In modern times our governing body, The Association of Operating Department Practitioners (AODP), this year (2005) celebrates its 60th anniversary.

In the 1970s ODPs were known as Operating Department Assistants (ODAs), a title created by the Lewin Report of 1970 and one that stuck until the early 1990s when the title of Operating Department Practitioner was adopted. It was felt that this reflected the fact that, like other Healthcare Professionals, we too "practice" in our role.

In 2004, with hard work from the AODP, Operating Department Practitioners were invited to become members of the Health Professions Council. This was perhaps the most important acknowledgement of our skills so far. We are an expanding profession with an important role to play in the delivery of modern healthcare.