Purpose: The report seeks to explore if flexibility
in operation theater nurses can create
higher patient throughput and resilience
Method: This is done qualitatively by
interviewing both perioperative nurses and
certified registered nurse anesthetists from
four surgical specialisms to estimate procedures
considered capable of using crosstrained
nurses and which factors prohibit this
Results: Factors such as procedure frequency,
knowing the team, experience, and
undefined skills impact which procedures can
use cross-trained nurses. On average could,
48% of surgeries historically have used a
cross-trained certified registered nurse anesthetist
and 36% of surgeries with the crosstrained
preoperative nurse, though the number
varies significantly between surgical specialism
Proposal: Considering the identified crosstraining
factors, a road map is proposed. The
road map contains four steps towards a more
flexible workforce. These steps are 1) data
foundation, 2) visualization of competencies
and availability, 3) quality assurance on team
composition, and 4) balancing competencies
with procedural demands.
Discussion: It is projected that the proposal
can improve patient throughput and resilience,
but this is only considered feasible if
ICT can be integrated due to an increase in
organizational complexity.