Selina Eastwood

Selina is a registered Operating Department Practitioner and qualified Surgical Care Practitioner with over 15-years’ experience of working within the NHS in Cardiothoracic and Trauma and Orthopaedic Services. 

[email protected]

Background

Selina registered as an Operating Department Practitioner in March 2006. After several years of gaining experience in many different surgical specialities, Selina discovered a passion for Cardiothoracic Surgery and a keen interest in developing advanced surgical skills. In 2013 she was accepted on the Surgical Care Practitioner (SCP) Cardiothoracic Course at Teesside University. This enabled her to develop her surgical skills as well as clinical assessment and differential diagnostics making her a well-rounded advanced practitioner.

After qualifying as a SCP, Selina completed a year post qualification before changing specialities and taking up a lower limb trauma and orthopaedic SCP post. During her time in this job Selina completed her master’s in health and wellbeing and discovered an interest in the management of patients living with metal bearing total hip replacements and resurfacings. She was responsible for the management of over 500 patients living with this type of prosthesis.

The COVID pandemic encouraged Selina to relocate closer to friends and family and she found herself working back in cardiothoracic surgery. She refreshed her endoscopic vein harvesting skills and became part of the out of hours service before being successfully appointment to ARU as a senior lecture practitioner.

Selina continues to work as a locum SCP.

Research interests

• The long-term effects of living with elevated blood metal ion levels on other body systems.
• The management of people living with metal bearing total hip replacements and resurfacings.
• Cardiothoracic Surgery

After managing a group of over 500 patients living with metal bearing total hip replacements and resurfacings, Selina has an invested interest in the care of such patients. Elevated blood metal ions have been linked to early prosthesis failure, but little is known about the longer-term effects these ions may have on other body systems. Some patients are offered revision surgery but chose not to have it because of the risks the surgery pose. What about the risks of not having surgery? There is evidence to suggest that long term exposure to elevated blood metal ions could cause dementia.

Qualifications

• Diploma of Higher Education: Operating Department Practitioner, Homerton School of Health.
• Post Graduate Diploma: Surgical Care Practitioner; Cardiothoracic, Teesside University.
• MSc: Health and Wellbeing, Canterbury Christchurch University.

Memberships, editorial boards

• HCPC, Health and Care Professions Council
• AFPP, Association for Perioperative Practice

Selected recent publications

Virani S, Eastwood S, Holmes N, Shaeir M, Housden P. (2021) “Objective assessment of the efficacy of telephone medicine consultations in dispensing elective orthopaedic care using a novel scoring tool,” The Surgeon, 19(5), pp. 175–182. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.surge.2020.09.008.