Perioperative Theatre Practitioner - Scrub

The Primary focus of the post is to ensure that all patients receive high quality, confidential and compassionate patient centred care, delivering private healthcare that reflects the needs of patients first. This will be driven by a hardworking ethic, having high standards of delivering quality care and a passion for the role.

Department: Theatres

Accountable/Responsible to: Theatre Manager

Location: The Regent Hospital - Liverpool

Job Summary

The role of the Scrub Practitioner is to ensure that the highest quality of care is provided to every patient throughout the intra-operative phase. The scrub practitioner’s main responsibility is to assist the surgeon during a surgical intervention. This includes ensuring the sterility and availability of all surgical instruments and equipment, as well as accounting for all items used during a procedure to minimise risk and always ensure patient safety.

• The post holder will provide assistance to the surgical team throughout the intra operative phase.
• The post holder will have significant responsibility for the checking of integrity of all instruments .
• The post holder will have responsibility for ensuring all equipment and instruments are available for use and meets all decontamination criteria in line with regulatory standards.
• The post holder will ensure effective and efficient channels of communication are maintained with all disciplines of staff, patients and visitors.
• The post holder will have clinical knowledge of intra operative clinical practice and be actively involved in the teaching and assessing of junior staff in line with current national and local standards and best practice.
• The post holder will support the patient and the surgical multidisciplinary teams providing the care through an efficient, productive perioperative journey maximising resources and clinical skills.
• The post holder will be responsible for their own professional conduct in line with NMC/HCPC code of conduct and will undertake their role in accordance with all procedures, protocols , policies and guidelines to support the theatre department.
• The post holder will act as an advocate for all patients and work autonomously or as part of a team.
• The post holder will act as an exemplary role model maintaining a positive culture and psychologically safe environment.

Key Responsibilities

1. Accurately assess, plan, implement , monitor and evaluate the holistic peri operative care needs of patients using an extensive knowledge base and range of skills within the theatre department.

2. Liaise and integrate with the multidisciplinary team, ensuring patients receive comprehensive care and promote a team approach to working.

3. Develop good working relationships and promote effective communication between all clinical staff within the multi disciplinary team.

4. Work as a skilled member of the scrub team, carrying out duties within the operating theatre ensuring minimal risk and providing the highest standard of patient care.

5. Develop and maintain clinical skills and knowledge necessary to provide holistic evidence based nursing care.

6. Provide clear communication with the ability to give and receive complex and sensitive information identifying individual needs and being responsive to barriers of understanding.

7. Ensure proficiency with all medical equipment before use in accordance with the hospital medical device policies.

8. Ensure that all prescribed drugs and treatments are given correctly and in accordance with hospital policy, including the correct care and custody of controlled drugs.

9. Ensure effective hand over of care to recovery teams on patient admission to the recovery area.

10. Cleaning and maintenance of all other clinical and non clinical areas adhering to infection control standards and policies at all times.

11. Preparation of surgical equipment ahead of surgery and checking of consumables and prosthesis availability.

12. Rotation of stock and stock replenishment of all hospital stock,consumables and sundries.

13. Safely dispose of clinical waste and sharps in accordance with waste management policies.

14. Participate in all surgical safety checklists and surgical safety briefs ensuring full engagement at all times.

15. Ensure comprehensive and accurate documentation at all times, including inputting of patient data on to the electronic medical record system and IT systems in line with hospital policies.

16. Assist in the manual handling of patients, patient positioning and transferring of patients between beds,trolleys and operating tables.

17. To communicate effectively with the theatre team escalating any concerns as appropriate, and reporting any untoward incidents via the incident management reporting system.

18. Be aware of a safe environment, reporting any hazards which may endanger both patients, staff and visitors and where suitable take appropriate action.

Scrub

• Responsible for ensuring the availability and sterility of all equipment required to perform surgery.
• Responsible for preparation of the operating theatre, surgical equipment and surgical instruments.
• Assists with ensuring sterility of the surgical environment.
• Assists the operating surgeon by passing surgical instruments in a timely and safe manner.
• Responsible for conducting a formal count of instruments and supplies to minimise risk to patient safety.
• Act in the capacity of surgical first assistant (Qualification required), in line with national guidance and local standard operating procedure. This is a separate role and cannot be dual performed alongside scrub roles.

Training and Development

• Be proactive in identifying your own educational needs and maintain compliance with all mandatory training requirements.
• Complete relevant theatre competencies and resuscitation courses.
• Participate in annual PDR (personnel development reviews)
• Help maintain a suitable learning environment for staff and act as a mentor/buddy in the supervision and teaching of new theatre staff, students and medical professions
• Participate in post registration learning programmes to facilitate an effective learning environment.
• Lead and support the development of theatre policies and procedures in line with hospital requirements to enhance patient care.

Risk and Governance

• Participate in audit processes for monitoring and reviewing operating department quality assurance.
• Participate in risk assessments and risk mitigation ensure a safe working environment.
• Report clinical incidents including near misses within the theatre department to ensure effective learning and patient safety and where delegated.
• Escalate any safeguarding concerns in line with hospital policies and ensure safeguarding of all patients at all times.
• Ensure full adherence to hospital policies and procedures ensuring knowledge is kept up to date.

The above duties and responsibilities are intended to represent current priorities and are not intended to be a conclusive list. The post holder may from time to time be asked to undertake other reasonable duties. Any changes will be made in discussion with the post holder considering the service needs. 

Health and Safety

• All staff must act in line with relevant health and safety hospital policies and in line with the health and safety at work act (1974) to ensure a safe environment for patients, visitors and staff.
• Take all reasonable care of health and safety at work for yourself, team, patients and visitors and undertake delegated tasks in relation to health and safety record keeping, risk assessment and aspects of procedural compliance.

Equality and Diversity

• The hospital values diversity and actively works towards promoting equality both in terms of its healthcare provision and within its current and potential workforce.
• Promote equality and diversity in the department ensuring that all members of staff provide a professional approach.