Increasing capacity in ODP

The development was led by Margaret Newsham, Placement Development Manager (PDM) and supported by Stephanie Purcell, team lead for the Cumbria and Lancashire team of NWPDN.  The team were tasked with increasing placements that met the learning outcomes of the student and the course curriculum.   These placements had to be of high quality with enough mentors to support the students. There was also the impact of capacity for other health students who needed to access placements in operating theatres.  The process of securing these placements involved working with the University’s course lead and the placement lead.   A meeting was called for all the local educational leads for theatres in local Acute and Private sector hospitals.  The team needed to engage and forge good working relationships with the Private sector to enable the increased number of placements for Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) students.  To read more case studies in this series click on the author below (North West Placement Development Network)