The Operating Department Practitioner

This blog is written by Kris Birney, Course Director BSc (Hons) Operating Department Practice at Canterbury Christ Church University, he is also a member of the ODP Surge team, an NHS England-funded initiative focused on transforming the ODP profession. The blog highlights the operating department practitioners’ growing role in sustainability and innovation, alongside expanding career pathways and the need for greater recognition. It also calls on Higher Education Institutions to partner in advancing the profession through stronger curricula, research opportunities, and creating the academic infrastructure to support ODPs pursuing advanced practice and consultant-level careers. 

Most people or a loved one, will have surgery at some point in their lives. Yet few will know the name of the professional standing by them at the table, maybe holding their hand as they drift off to sleep or are there when they wake up, quietly ensuring everything is in place for them to be kept safe. That person is likely an Operating Department Practitioner, and on National ODP Day, it is time to change that.

This year’s National Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) Day theme of People, Planet and Progress could not be a more fitting lens through which to understand the ODP profession. We are a workforce built around people, patients, colleagues, students. We are increasingly conscious of our responsibility to the planet within healthcare settings. And our profession is one of constant, remarkable progress; in scope, in education, and in the breadth of roles we now occupy across the NHS and beyond.

Operating Department Practitioners also contribute across the four pillars of Allied Health Professional practice defined by NHS England: clinical practice, leadership, education, and research. While the public most readily see the clinical elements of the role within the operating theatre, ODPs increasingly contribute to service improvement, workforce development, and the generation of evidence that informs safer surgical care.

People: At the Heart of Every Procedure

Operating Department Practitioners are registered Allied Health Professionals who provide expert, compassionate care during one of the most vulnerable moments in a patient life: their surgical procedure. 17,000 practitioners are currently registered with the Health and Care Professionals Council (HCPC). Working predominantly, though not exclusively, behind the doors of the operating theatre, ODPs are often unseen by patients and little understood by the wider public. That is something we are determined to change.

The ODP role spans three deeply interconnected phases of the perioperative journey:

Anaesthetics: Supporting and assisting the anaesthetist to deliver safe anaesthesia and analgesia, while responding swiftly and confidently to any changes during the procedure.

Scrub: Working directly alongside surgeons, managing instrumentation and maintaining accountability for every item that enters the sterile field; from swabs and sutures to specialist devices.

Recovery: Overseeing the immediate post-operative care of patients as they emerge from anaesthesia, managing airway support, pain assessment and close observation during this critical transition.

Beyond technical expertise, ODPs contribute to clinical leadership within multidisciplinary theatre teams. Through vigilance, communication and escalation of concerns, practitioners play a central role in maintaining surgical safety systems such as the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist and local NatSSIP frameworks. In this way the profession contributes directly to patient advocacy and safety leadership within perioperative care.

Beyond the operating table, ODPs play a vital role in hospital Cardiac Arrest and Major Trauma Teams, providing specialist airway management and supporting the intra- and extra-hospital transfer of critically ill patients. At the heart of everything we do is a fundamental responsibility: to advocate for the patient, maintain their dignity, and ensure their wishes and beliefs are always respected.

Planet: Sustainability in Surgical Practice

The operating theatre is one of the most resource-intensive environments in the NHS. Single-use instruments, surgical drapes, packaging, and the energy demands of a climate-controlled sterile environment mean that theatres account for a significant proportion of healthcare environmental footprint.

ODPs are uniquely positioned to lead on sustainability within their settings. As the practitioners who manage the scrub environment, oversee procurement of surgical supplies, and work closely with decontamination and sterilisation teams, we are influencing decisions about what gets used, what gets reprocessed, and what gets wasted. Across the country, ODPs are championing green theatre initiatives, trialling reusable surgical instruments, and embedding sustainability thinking into everyday practice.

These initiatives reflect a growing leadership role for ODPs in sustainable healthcare. By influencing procurement choices, theatre workflows and waste management practices, practitioners contribute to organisational quality improvement while supporting the NHS Net Zero agenda.

For Higher Education colleagues, this represents an exciting opportunity: sustainability must now be woven into ODP curricula, equipping the next generation of practitioners with not only the clinical knowledge but the environmental literacy to make a real difference. The NHS Net Zero agenda need advocates inside the operating department, and ODPs are ready and currently fulfilling that role.

Progress: A Profession in Constant Evolution

The ODP profession has come a long way since its early origins and variety of roles in the early days of surgery, back in the nineteenth century. Although formal registration with the HCPC was achieved in 2004, and the profession joined the NHS England and Wales AHP family in 2017, it has been quietly evolving for generations, developing its evidence base, expanding its scope, and building a compelling identity as one of the NHS most adaptable workforces.

ODPs study to degree level, developing a sophisticated understanding of anatomy and physiology, anaesthetic pharmacology, asepsis and infection control, surgical safety, and the operation of advanced medical technology. The non-technical skills embedded in ODP training; adaptability, problem-solving, situational awareness, and leadership under pressure, have made the profession increasingly attractive to employers well beyond the operating department.

Alongside clinical competence, the profession is increasingly engaging with the education and research pillars of AHP practice. ODPs contribute to simulation teaching, practice education, and mentorship of students within both university and clinical environments. There is also growing engagement with perioperative research, quality improvement studies and evaluation of patient safety systems, strengthening the evidence base underpinning operating department practice.

The COVID-19 pandemic was, in many ways, a defining moment for the profession. Utilising transferable skills, ODPs moved rapidly into critical care units, vaccination centres and Nightingale Hospitals, and helped establish additional critical care capacity within operating theatres. What the pandemic made clear, to healthcare leaders and the public alike was that ODPs possess skills, confidence and clinical versatility that had been hidden behind theatre doors for too long.  

That progress has continued. ODPs are now found in critical care, prehospital emergency medicine, clinical and operational management, education, and advanced practice roles. Post-registration and postgraduate qualifications are expanding pathways for career development, and the growth of the degree apprenticeship route is opening the profession to a wider and more diverse talent pool than ever before.

A Message for Higher Education

For colleagues working in Higher Education, ODP represents one of the most dynamic and under-recognised professions across the AHP family. Programme leads, curriculum designers, and academic partners have a real opportunity to shape the next chapter of this profession. We need HEI partners who can help us embed research culture into ODP practice, develop sustainable and simulation-rich curricula, and create the academic infrastructure to support ODPs pursuing advanced practice and consultant-level careers. The degree apprenticeship route in particular offers a compelling model for widening participation and working in close partnership with NHS employers to grow the workforce in a sustainable, responsive way.

Higher Education Institutions also play a critical role in developing the research pillar of ODP practice. Supporting practitioners to undertake postgraduate study, quality improvement research and doctoral work will be essential in strengthening the profession evidence base and ensuring perioperative care continues to evolve in response to emerging challenges.

The ODP profession needs leaders in HEI as genuine partners in its progression and in return, ODPs bring a clinical richness, a workforce story and a commitment to patient safety that makes them some of the most engaged and motivated learners you will teach.

Thinking About a Career as an ODP?

If you are considering a career in healthcare and want a role that is varied, technically demanding yet deeply rewarding this might be the profession for you.

As an ODP, no two days are the same. You might spend a morning in anaesthetics supporting a complex cardiac case, an afternoon in scrub for orthopaedic surgery, and find yourself called to a cardiac arrest before the day is done. You will work as part of a high-performing team, use cutting-edge technology, and make decisions that directly impact patient outcomes. You will also quietly, behind closed theatre doors, be the person who ensures your patient is safe, dignified, and cared for when they are at their most vulnerable.  

Entry routes include the traditional undergraduate degree and, increasingly, the degree apprenticeship, which allows you to train while working and earning. Whichever route you take, you will graduate as a registered AHP, with a career that can take you from theatres to critical care, from clinical leadership to education, from advanced practice to research.

People, Planet, Progress: That Is Who We Are

On National ODP Day, I am proud to celebrate a profession that has always put people first, that is now rising to the challenge of a more sustainable NHS, and that is progressing further and faster than ever before.

Find out more about the ODP profession, career routes and the College of Operating Department Practitioners at odpcareers.codp.uk. Use #ODPDay #PeoplePlanetProgress #NationalODPDay to join the conversation.