From healthcare assistant to student operating department practitioner—are you ready for the ODP challenge?

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in British Journal of Healthcare Assistants, copyright © MA Healthcare, after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see DOI:10.12968/bjha.2017.11.5.248 This article will explore some of the barriers and challenges that a healthcare assistant (HCA) may encounter while on their journey to becoming a student operating department practitioner (ODP). Working as an HCA is often assumed to give individuals an advantage when considering a move up the healthcare career ladder; however, this may not always be the case. There are a number of unique challenges that prospective students must consider and overcome in order to successfully negotiate the transition to theatre healthcare professional.