This article discusses the safe learning and assessment for a component of the anaesthetic apparatus check. It reports on an innovation to facilitate a realistic medical gas pressure check. For clarity, the term ‘anaesthetic practitioner’ (Wicker & Smith 2006) is used to refer to operating department practitioners and perioperative nurses who work as members of the anaesthetic team, as opposed to ‘anaesthesia practitioner’ (Wilkinson 2007) which refers to non-medical anaesthetists.
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