A report on a practical resource to support workforce transformation of ODPs working in critical care

This report describes how the roles and practices of a group of operating department practitioners (ODPs) developed in a Trust to support patients more widely in critical care throughout their hospital.

It provides both an example of how this was achieved at the York and Scarborough NHS Foundation Trust (YSNHSFT) and as a model of how such a workforce transformation could applied in other parts of the health service.

It highlights the importance of aligning the service needs of a Trust with a desire to expand roles and utilise the high levels of professional skills that already exist with critical care settings. It also recognises the importance to keep all healthcare professionals and managers onside as part of a positive and empowering culture within an organisation focused on delivering the best possible care to patients.

This work is in many ways an example what the NHS Long Term Plan (2023) looks like in practice and is reported around the three pillars of that document – training, retaining and reforming.

It was undertaken by academics at the University of Hull alongside practitioners at YSNHSFT as a small research project commissioned by NHS England. As a result of this research the team intend to expand their research in order to explore further how ODPs and other AHP roles might be reformed and developed.