Enhancing perioperative nursing practice: developing a course for the surgeon's assistant.

This article describes the development of a new English National Board (ENB) course for nurses wishing to adopt the role of the surgeon's assistant. The original request for a course of this nature came from the clinicians working in hospitals in the Manchester area, including not only theatre nurses and managers but also surgeons and individuals already practising as surgeon's assistants. This course has been designed with the support of the nursing and medical staff in local trusts, who have been widely consulted. It was developed collaboratively with nurse educationalists, in order to standardise training and education for nurses in practice who wished to adopt this expanding role.