Professionalisation of Operating Department Practice: An evolutionary perspective,

The health care professionals staffing the operating theatres of UK hospitals are
pursuing a professionalisation agenda based around increasing the academic level
of the credential required for entry to their professional register. This paper
explores the impact of this on registered Operating Department Practitioners
(ODPs) and Theatre Nurses by proposing a theory of professionalisation based on
the work of evolutionary biologist Leigh van Valen (1973). Selected findings
from a wider study of human capital development in the operating theatre are
presented which demonstrate an inter- and intra-professional evolutionary
process which resonates with van Valen’s Red Queen’s Hypothesis. The findings
show how registered professionals carry out a benchmarking exercise to
determine the most suitable route of professional development. The ODPs and
nurses who decide to participate in credentialised continuing professional
development do so to remain competitive with the new breed of graduates
entering the profession. However, their continued study only serves to bring them
to the level of the new breed professionals; they are running fast to stand still.
We explore and comment on the ripple of behaviours the rise in academic
credential produces.