My Undergraduate Degree | What I Did

Unlike most people who are on the PA course, I've not done a biomedical degree, nor a nursing degree. Instead I spent three years as an undergraduate studying to become an operating department practitioner, an ODP for short. So to catch you up a little, an ODP is quite possibly the hidden practitioner that you've never met, unless you've visited theatre before, then you'll know just how essential the role is. There are 3 areas that you can predominately specialise in, and our degree enabled us to develop the skills required to be competent in those areas. They are anaesthetics, surgery and PACU (post anaesthetic care unit), you are required to spend 40% of your time at university undertaking lectures and clinical scenarios, and the other 60% you are completing clinical competences whilst on placement.

I studied at Cardiff University and as the Welsh government funded our tuition fees we were expected to accept placements across the whole of Wales, unless you had a pretty damn good reason to argue against it! So me being me, and luck was certainly not on my side, I ended up being allocated the furthest one away, which was 4 hours away, in North Wales, for my first year! The second and third years were much easier as I was then moved to the South Wales region, and had placements much closer to home! One thing you should know about me is that I am such a home girl, I adore my home comforts, I can deal with being pushed to my limits and working outside of my comfort zone, as long as at the end of the day I get to go home to all of my most loved things!

The course was unlike anything I had previously experienced, I came straight from college and had no experience in theatres before that, other than the odd day of work experience here and there! I failed a lot of modules in my first year, but quickly turned it around and bagged myself a First Class honours degree in the summer of 2018, which allowed me to accept a job at the trust where I completed my final anaesthetic placement. Currently I work as an anaesthetic practitioner where I work side by side with an anaesthetist to provide safe and effective care throughout a patients perioperative journey, deliver analgesia and manage airways. I not only work across main theatre, but maternity and A&E too so there's a pretty wide scope of practice in my role!

What my 3 years looked like

 Year 1 -

  Year 2 -


 Year 3 -

I hope this has given you a little insight into my background, if you have any questions about my previous degree then please do let me know! Similarly, I would love to know what you did before if you're a PA student yourself!

Until next time,

Shan