Nursing and the role of the nurse have always been difficult to define (Nightingale 1986). This is especially true in operating theatres where task focused care often takes precedence over holistic patient care (Conway 1995). There is no shortage of literature suggesting that theatre nurses are preoccupied in preparation of instrumentation (Conway 1995, Holmes 1994) and if a non-nurse were to observe staff in some operating theatres it may be difficult to see where the nursing exists.