In the 25 years since the Oxford Heart Centre in England appointed the first British nurse to be formally trained as a non-medically qualified surgical assistant, the number of nurses and allied health professionals (AHPs) undertaking advancing surgical roles has increased in order to backfill the deficit of a surgical workforce(Quick and Hall 2014). Despite initial concerns over nurses and AHPs undertaking roles and responsibilities which were previously performed solely by doctors, the role of non-medical surgical assistants has been shown to maintain surgical services, provide an additional career route for nurses, and enhance patient care (Abraham 2011, Quick 2013, Jones et al 2012). In the early days however, a lack of role specific regulation, practice guidelines and a variety of educational standards led to variances in job titles and role responsibilities for nurses and AHPs performing surgical assistance (Box 1).
AbrahamJ.2011Innovative perioperative role improves patient and organisational outcomes in minimally invasive surgeryJournal of Perioperative Practice21(5)
2.
Association for Perioperative Practice2014The surgical first assistant competency toolkit2nd EditionHarrogate, AfPP
3.
CuttelJ.2013Scrub skills auditJournal of Perioperative Practice23(11) 258–261
4.
Department of Health2010Advanced level nursing: a position statementLondon, DH
5.
Department of Health2013Health care and associated professions (indemnity arrangements) Order 2013 A paper for consultation London, DH
6.
DimondB.2011Legal aspects of nursingHarlow, Pearson Education Ltd
Perioperative Care Collaborative2012Position statement: surgical first assistant (formerly the ‘advanced scrub practitioner’) Harrogate, PCC
18.
ReidJ.H.2014Violations and migrations in perioperative practice: how organisational drift puts patients at riskJournal of Perioperative Practice24(3) 45–49
