The role of the surgical care practitioner within the surgical team

Changes to the surgical workforce and the continued development of health policy have perpetuated the requirement for innovative perioperative roles. The surgical care practitioner is a nurse or allied health professional who works within a surgical team and has advanced perioperative skills, including the ability to undertake surgical interventions.With only limited literature evaluating this role, any benefits of their inclusion to a surgical team are largely anecdotal. This article presents the findings of an autoethnographic inquiry that explored the experiences of surgical team members who worked with the nurse researcher in her role as surgical care practitioner. Surgeons identified the provision of a knowledgeable, competent assistant and operator who enhanced patient care, helped maintain surgical services and supported the training of junior doctors. The professional, ethical and legal obligations of advanced perioperative practice were upheld. Interprofessional collaboration was improved, as was service provision. This further enhanced the patient experience. The traditional viewpoint that nurses who undertake tasks previously associated with medicine should be working to the standard of a doctor is challenged but requires further examination.