PROPRIUS -
Promoting Excellence through Education
PROPRIUS is the Organisation for Education, Training and Development Centres in Operating Department Practice.
Primarily, PROPRIUS is involved with the education of future Operating Department Practitioners (ODPs), but it is also concerned with the education of other theatre personnel, e.g. Theatre Nurses, Operating Department support staff, and is becoming increasingly involved with the provision of continuing development opportunities for all qualified theatre professionals.
The organisation was established in 1993, and emerged as the successor to NATSCODA, the National Association of Training Scheme Co-ordinators for Operating Department Assistants. The current organisation is much more broadly based and is open to all those involved in operating department practice education and has members throughout Britain.
The word PROPRIUS is derived from the Latin for "one's own", which perfectly describes the relationship between PROPRIUS and its members - PROPRIUS is its members.
The member Centres, which form PROPRIUS, range in size and complexity - from quite large organisations, which include many hospitals spread over a wide geographical area, to relatively small organisations responsible for operating department practice education in one hospital only. All member centres are located within a Higher Education Institution (HEI), or have close links with an HEI.
PROPRIUS has links with the Association of Operating Department Practitioners (AODP) and worked closely with the AODP in the profession's move to establish a Diploma of Higher Education as the qualification to practise. PROPRIUS has also developed links with the Association for Perioperative Practice (AfPP - formerly the National Association of Theatre Nurses (NATN)), which has resulted in the establishment of collaborative ventures. The organisation works closely with government departments and agencies in all aspects related to operating department practice education, none more so than Skills for Health in the development and review of national occupational standards for practice within theatres. PROPRIUS is also a member of the Perioperative Care Collaborative (PCC).
PROPRIUS has established informal links with similar organisations overseas and has contacts with the Australasian Society of Anaesthesia Paramedical Officers (ASAPO) and, in the United States, with the Association of Surgical Technologists (AST).