Specialist Interest Groups
Information on areas of specialist interest, networking, discussions, and support
What’s your topic of interest?
Operated by our Special Interest Group (SIG) Leads, each SIG has its own unique discussion forum. These provide members with a support network where they can share their knowledge and exchange ideas.
Through this virtual community, members can ask for advice, find information and discuss issues and concerns.
To access the forums, please login below or continue scrolling.
Remember, if you’d like to discuss a confidential issue you can contact the AfPP Professional Advice Service.
Advancing Surgical Roles Forum

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SIG Lead: Claire Kilbride
The Advancing Surgical Roles Specialist Interest Group (ASR SIG) has been developed to support practitioners who are training for, undertaking, or planning to develop their role.
Anaesthetic and Recovery Forum

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SIG Lead: Shahban Meherban
The Anaesthetic Recovery and Day Surgery (ARDS) Specialist Interest Group (SIG) is for all healthcare professionals working and interested in these areas of perioperative care including practice development and practice educators.
Clinical Management and Leadership Forum

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SIG Lead: Belinda Reid
This Clinical Management and Leadership (SIG) group exists to meet the specific needs of experienced clinical leaders, managers and aspiring managers working in the perioperative environment.
Educators Forum

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SIG Lead: Will Windsor
The Educator SIG aims to offer support and guidance to perioperative practitioners and academic professionals regarding education and the development of staff and students.
Human Factors Forum

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SIG Lead: Roy Walker
Welcome to the Human Factors Specialist Interest Group (SIG) for all healthcare professionals working in the perioperative arena. This forum will give you as AfPP members a platform to discuss and engage with like-minded practitioners on current practice issues around the application of human factors in improving patient safety.
Military Forum

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SIG Lead: Leanne Scrivens. Support: James Dearing
Our Military Specialist Interest Group (SIG) is dedicated to those working in perioperative care in the Royal Navy, the British Army and the Royal Air Force.
This Special Interest Group aims to discuss DMS topics and broaden your knowledge of Defence Perioperative Care.
Non-Registered Perioperative Practitioner Forum

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SIG Lead: vacant
This forum provides a platform for non-registered perioperative practitioners to share their knowledge, exchange ideas, ask advice, act as a sounding board, find information and discuss issues and concerns relating to perioperative care and their role (scope of practice).
Opthalmic Forum

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SIG Lead: Oonagh McCloy
The Ophthalmic Specialist Interest Group (SIG) is for those healthcare professionals working in clinics, units and surgical Hubs where Ophthalmic surgery is undertaken.
Orthopaedics Forum

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SIG Lead: Julisa Cooknell. Support: Rachel Langley
The Orthopaedic Special Interest Group (SIG) aims to support all perioperative practitioners with their ongoing challenges within the field of Trauma and Orthopaedics.
Paediatrics Forum

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SIG Lead: Fearghal Lewis
The Paediatric Specialist Interest Group (SIG) aims to support healthcare professionals with a specific interest in the paediatric patient or those of you working within this specialised area of perioperative paediatric care.
Research and Development Forum

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SIG Lead: Victoria Cadman
The Research and Development Specialist Interest Group (R&D SIG) is a forum to support RNs, NAs, ODPs, Non-Registered Perioperative Practitioners and wider team members to identify a research topic, develop a research or audit project as well as provide advice on sourcing research funding and getting your findings disseminated.
Robotics Forum

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SIG Lead: Estelle Martin
The Robotics SIG is for all perioperative healthcare professionals working across multiple specialities within Robotic Assisted Surgery (RAS).
This forum will give you as AfPP members a platform to discuss and engage with like-minded practitioners on current practice issues relating to RAS.
Students and Early Careers Forum

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SIG Lead: Vacant. Support: Kirsty Pierce and Brandon Wasmuth
This SEC Specialist Interest Group aims to support all students through their apprenticeship or degree pathway into a career in perioperative practice, offering members the opportunity to seek advice, discuss aspects of clinical practice, provide support in early careers and act as a sounding board through the student forum network.
Sustainability Forum

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SIG Lead: Nicola Stroud
In this Special Interest Group (SIG), you will find information relating to sustainable theatres. This is an important topic in modern healthcare and all theatre departments should be taking steps to become more sustainable.
Writers Forum

SIG Lead: Sue Lord. Support: Maxine Page
Welcome to the new Writers’ Special Interest Group.
The SIG has been launched to support members who are interested in writing for the Journal or IPP, but don’t know where to start. We’ve also noted that many of you feel doctors often dominate the content published in the Journal, and there’s a desire to see more papers written by nurses and ODPs. To make this happen, we need more nurses and ODPs to submit a paper to the Journal.
For those of you new to writing for a publication, we would like to encourage you to consider writing a short piece for the IPP, perhaps something which focuses on a topic related to your role in practice. For those of you who have pursued academic courses at university level, whether as an undergraduate, master’s or doctorate, we strongly encourage you to consider submitting your work/dissertation to the Journal for consideration. Guidance for authors, including word limit, categories and referencing, can be found on the Journal’s submission paper at here.
Things to consider:
- Have you participated in a service improvement project, either individually or as part of a team, that you’d like to share with the wider perioperative community?
- Have you recently written an academic piece of work which received a high score that would be suitable for publication in the Journal?
As leads of the Writers’ Special Interest Group (SIG), our primary goal is to help you get published.
Please contact us on the forum, using the questions provided as prompts to kickstart your writing journey. We look forward to collaborating with you and reading your work in print.
*Advice given by members of the SIG will not necessarily be AfPP policy and at times there may be some ‘editorial control’ exercised on the responses.