Celebrating our ODP’s, meet Eric Intrepide
On 14 May each year, we celebrate our Operating Department Practitioners, better known as ODP’s.
ODP’s play a vital role in our theatres, without them our surgery would not be possible.
For ODP day, we caught up with Eric Intrepide, who’s been part of St George’s since 2009.
How did you get into the field of being an Operating Department Practitioner?
I joined the Trust in 2009 as a theatre support worker, in 2012 the opportunity came up to be seconded to do a BSc degree to train to become a fully qualified Operating Department Practitioner, so I went for it!
I was able to train at St George’s throughout which was great. If anyone has the opportunity to train and get qualifications while they work, I’d say go for it.
What does your day-to-day look like?
I come in early, check the theatre list, and get the relevant equipment ready for the list, this is all before starting my shift at 8 am.
On days when I’m not in theatres, I’ll be holding the bleep, helping out on the go with anything that needs to be organised for theatres.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I really enjoy mentoring and am pleased that we’re a teaching hospital so there’s plenty of opportunity to do this. Then of course looking after patients, seeing the positive outcomes they get and how happy they are leaving at the end of the day.
What would you say to someone considering becoming an ODP?
ODP’s are one of the more unknown roles in hospitals, when I came to work in theatres, I hadn’t heard of them before.
I would say it’s a great opportunity, it’s good experience and there’s always new ways you can challenge yourself.
Working on the frontline and making a difference really is something to be proud of.
