Exchanging implements

The Micro-Materialities of Multidisciplinary Work in the Operating Theatre

Bibliographic Data

ID2249296
AuthorsC Heath (0000-0003-3196-0197, King's College London, corresponding author), Paul Luff (0000-0001-5046-2279, School of Management and Business King's College London UK), Marcus Sanchez‐svensson (InUse Ab Malmo Sweden), Maxim Nicholls (Anaesthesia, critical care and acute pain management Wye Valley NHS Trust Hereford UK)
Year2018
Volume40
Issue2
Pages297-313
Publication date2018-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSociology of Health & Illness (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0141-9889 • E-ISSN: 1467-9566
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-9566.12594
PMID28707782
OpenAlexW2734802332
LanguageEN
Citations received25
References cited45

Surgical procedures rely upon an array of commonplace tools, implements and materials that mediate practice and disciplinary collaboration within the operating theatre. Substantial time is dedicated to the issue and provision of these artefacts and their timely exchange is critical to the successful accomplishment of surgical procedures. In this article, we consider the practice, knowledge and agency that informs how particular implements and materials are passed by the scrub nurse to the surgeon that in turn enables their deployment with regard to the particular procedure and the contingencies 'at hand'. We address the technicalities of these 'non-technical skills' and examine how they rely upon a disciplinary vision and interactional organisation that informs both the scrutiny of action and the ways in which implements and materials are handled and exchanged. We explore the implications of our analysis for our understanding of agency in action and the growing interest in developing robots or autonomous agents to support work and collaboration in health care

Action (physics · Agency (philosophy · Business · Discipline · Engineering ethics · Health care · Knowledge management · Multidisciplinary approach · Political science · Process management · Public relations · Scrutiny · Sociology · Software deployment · Software engineering · Work (physics · Computer Science · Education, Healthcare and Sociology Research · Engineering · History of Medical Practice · Information Systems Theories and Implementation · Psychology