About

The healthcare services provided by the NHS today are dynamic and challenging, and nurses with advanced clinical skills are often required to provide care and interventions that resemble those performed by junior clinicians and junior surgeons. This two-day course is suitable for trained nurses who wish to develop a career within the NHS as a Surgical Nurse Practitioner, an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, a Surgical First Assistant, a Physician Assistant or a Physician Associate.

This course will offer the delegate an overview of the essential principles, core concepts, and fundamental skills pertinent to the above surgical roles. It predominantly comprises hands-on training using animal tissue, which is interspersed with structured and focused teaching on the basics of operative surgery.

With a high tutor-to-delegate ratio, this course will equip the delegate with the surgical skills that are expected of a surgical nurse.

The topics covered include:

• Aseptic Precautions in the Operating Theatre
• Scrubbing and Handwashing Technique
• Closed Method of Gowning and Gloving
• Surgical Knot-Tying (Reef; Surgeon's; Tying at Depth; Instrument Tie)
• Correct Handling of Common Surgical Instruments and Disposing Sharps
• Basics of Surgical Sutures and Surgical Needles
• Pharmacology of Local Anaesthesia and its Safe Infiltration
• Suturing Techniques (Interrupted; Continuous; Subcuticular; Vertical and Horizontal Mattress)
• Figure of '8' Haemostatic Stitch and Ligating a Blood Vessel
• Excision of a Simulated Cutaneous Lesion and Closure
• Removal of a Simulated Epidermoid Cyst
• Principles of Draining an Abscess
• Principles of Debriding a Contaminated Wound
• Methods of Securing a Surgical Wound Drain
• Methods of Managing a Surgical Wound and Wound Dressings
• Principles and Methods of Closing a Surgical Wound
• Key Concepts in Effective Surgical Assisting
• Basic Principles of Surgical Diathermy
• Overview of Laparoscopic Surgery
• Simulated Laparoscopic Exercises