Senior Theatre Practitioner

• Provide expert clinical support and leadership within the theatre team, maintaining safe, effective and compassionate care.
• Scrub for a range of surgical specialties and levels of complexity, working within your assessed competencies and scope of practice.
• Undertake circulating duties and support the preparation, set-up and clearing of theatres.
• Complete and oversee appropriate safety checks, including swab, instrument and needle counts, working with a second practitioner and escalating discrepancies immediately.
• Ensure the safe labelling, handling and dispatch of surgical specimens, alongside accurate and comprehensive patient documentation.
• Support safe patient transfers and handovers, ensuring relevant information is communicated clearly and effectively.
• Exercise sound clinical judgement, advocate for patients and respond confidently to changing clinical demands.
• Undertake Surgical First Assistant duties where appropriately trained, competent and authorised.
• Participate in on-call duties as required.

• Act as a positive clinical role model, promoting teamwork, professional accountability and high standards of practice.
• Support the Theatre Manager with staff allocation, skill mix planning and the management of changing staffing requirements.
• Help induct, mentor and develop colleagues, including students and new members of the department.
• Teach and assess colleagues in the technical aspects of the scrub role, sharing knowledge and promoting evidence-based practice.
• Encourage effective communication, maintain team morale and contribute to a supportive working environment.
• Act as a link practitioner for an agreed specialty, helping to share knowledge and implement improvements.

• Contribute to clinical audits, incident reporting, quality assurance and improvement initiatives.
• Support the development and review of departmental policies, procedures and clinical guidelines.
• Promote compliance with relevant professional standards, local policies and national perioperative guidance, including NICE and AfPP recommendations where applicable.
• Support the safe use, maintenance and procurement of theatre equipment and stock, working within departmental budgets.
• Keep up to date with developments in perioperative practice and help introduce improvements that enhance patient safety and service delivery.
• Maintain patient confidentiality and comply with data protection, safeguarding and clinical governance requirements.

• Caring putting people first and treating everyone with compassion and respect.
• Enterprising embracing new ideas and finding better ways to deliver care.
• Resourceful making the best use of our skills, knowledge and resources.
• Authentic being genuine, open and true to ourselves.
• Accountable taking responsibility for our actions and the quality of our work.

Essential

• Able to scrub for all specialities and complexities of surgery. (Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, Gynaecology, Urology, Spinal, Plastics, General Surgery, Minor Vascular and ENT)
• Must be able to teach and assess others on technical aspects of the scrub role
• Act as a circulating member of the Theatre team.
• Assisting with other members of the team in the preparation and clearing of Theatres.
• Experience as a leadership role and Registered Nurse/Health care professional.
• Experience of working closely with clinicians of varying seniority
• Excellent communications skills, written and oral
• Able to motivate and support others and encourage effective team working
• Understands the importance of confidentiality and dealing with sensitive information
• Able to prioritise and meet deadlines effectively
• Ability to use initiative and make decisions
• A Registered Healthcare Qualification and a relevant post-registration qualification, including HCPC and/or NMC registration.
• Educated to Diploma/Degree level or equivalent
• Evidence of recent professional development
• Intermediate Life Support

Desirable

• Evaluation of performance, evidence of reflective practice and self-development
• Evidence of completed competency in scrub for cases undertaken
• Audit experience
• Surgical First Assistant qualification
• Teaching / Mentoring experience and /or qualification
• Post graduate qualification in peri-operative practice
• Advanced Life Support