A recent report by the Perioperative Care Collaborative (PCC) highlights the rising number of staff employed as support workers within the perioperative teams.
Diversity may be attributed to a number of factors, including work that has been undertaken in the modernisation of the workforce and changes in service needs. However, support workers are not yet regulated and responsibility for their training lies with individual employing organisations, which has resulted in a wide variation in the quality and standards of training provided.
In order to promote confidence, safety and clinical excellence, the PPC recommends that organisations ensure that support workers are competent for the role they undertake, are provided with a detailed job description or contract, are supervised by a registered nurse or practitioner and provided with instructions regarding liability.
The PCC recognises that in the absence of a regulatory framework for support workers, registered practitioners are often uncertain of their responsibilities when delegating activities to a support worker, but it is imperative that registered practitioners are fully aware that they retain professional accountability for the appropriateness of the delegation of care to the support worker.
