This project was established with reference to the Public Health Code and the decree of April 27, 2022, concerning the training leading to the State Diploma for Operating Room Nurses. It notably presents the operating room nurse's activity framework, the competency framework, and the training framework.

The profession of Operating Room Nurse:

The teaching team is committed to a quality approach in order to give itself the capacity to achieve the operational objectives targeted, to provide a training offer adapted to the needs of learners and healthcare establishments and has controlled processes.

The operating room nurse is a specialized expert who participates in the care of patients undergoing surgical procedures, endoscopies, or invasive diagnostic and/or therapeutic procedures. Their skills are implemented within a multidisciplinary team, in the interventional suite regardless of the surgical discipline, or in related areas such as sterilization. They prepare, organize, and carry out care and activities related to the surgical procedure, in the pre-, intra-, and post-operative phases. Within their scope of practice, they implement all hygiene and safety measures, taking into account the risks inherent to the specific needs of the patients, the nature of the procedures, working in a protected area, the use of specific medical devices, and the use of new technologies.

The activities of the IBODE:

• Carrying out prevention and care activities related to invasive procedures and activities for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes
• Performing complex surgical assistance techniques during invasive procedures and activities for diagnostic and/or therapeutic purposes
• Organization and coordination of care activities related to the perioperative process
• Management of equipment, medical devices and products in interventional and related sectors
• Development and implementation of a quality, risk management and prevention approach in intervention and related sectors
• Implementation and monitoring of hygiene measures in intervention and associated sectors
• Training and information for multidisciplinary teams and learners in intervention and related sectors
• Conducting professional monitoring and research, designing and implementing processes to improve practices

Concise summary of the training content:

The program is organized into four semesters, validated by the acquisition of 120 European credits. It includes theoretical and practical instruction, primarily conducted at the school, and practical training in a professional setting.

Educational goals : 

This training is based on a participatory pedagogy founded on the student's professional project, allowing them to be involved in their training, to self-evaluate, and to have a reflective posture leading to a professional positioning.

The training leading to the State Diploma in Operating Room Nursing aims to develop the skills required to practice as an operating room nurse. The overall objective of the training is to produce responsible, autonomous, and reflective operating room nurses.

The specific objectives are:

• To enable the acquisition of solid knowledge in the field of biological and medical sciences and the management of infectious risk
• Developing skills in activities related to the surgical procedure in pre-, peri- and post-intervention, in the implementation of hygiene and safety measures taking into account the risks inherent in the specificity of the people being cared for, the nature of the interventions, working in a protected area, the use of specific medical devices and the use of new technologies.
• To acquire human qualities and interpersonal skills in a work and team collaboration context within a constrained environment,
• To develop clinical reasoning and the management of improvements in professional practices,
• Acquire skills related to professional monitoring and the field of health research,
• Develop a quality and risk management approach.

Training opportunities:

The educational program for operating room nurses (IBODE) at the Regional Institute for Operating Room Nurse Training (IRIBODE) aims to address the population's healthcare needs and the shortage of qualified professionals in the region. It is based on official standards defining the roles, skills, and assessment methods for students. The training rests on four pillars: alternating periods of study and work, professional development, learning, and active student involvement. It allows graduates to work in various hospital departments, particularly operating rooms, in close collaboration with surgeons and anesthesiologists. The profession is constantly evolving, and the shortage of qualified personnel necessitates the annual training of a new cohort of IBODEs to meet the needs of the public and private sectors in Réunion. This profession is experiencing a shortage both locally and nationally.

The training is structured around the study of situations giving students the opportunity to work on three levels of learning:

• understanding: the student acquires the knowledge and skills necessary to understand the situations
• To act: the student mobilizes knowledge and acquires the ability to act and evaluate their actions
• transfer: the student conceptualizes and acquires the ability to transpose their acquired knowledge into new situations.

Since the training is a work-study program, the internship site is a cornerstone of the training. In all internship sites, there is an identified internship supervisor who guarantees the quality of the internship, a tutor who is an OR nurse or surgeon with a teaching role, and a local professional who guides the student in their reflection and questioning.

The training helps to meet the need to train operating room nurses in the region.

The total training hours are regulated and distributed as follows:

• Theoretical instruction: 1117 hours (i.e., 47 weeks of 35-hour internships to be completed in a professional setting)
• Clinical teaching: 1645 hours

• Teaching Unit (UE) 1.01 – Nursing Sciences and the Operating Room
• UE 1.02 – Medical and Surgical Sciences
• UE 2.01 – Complex surgical assistance techniques
• UE 3.01 – Coordination of care activities related to the perioperative processes (pre-, intra- and post-operative)
• UE 3.02 – Risk Prevention and Management
• UE 4.01 – Training, tutoring and development of the three skills
• UE 5.01 – Research
• UE 5.02 – Modern Language
• UE 5.03 – Dissertation
• UE 5.04 – Analysis of professional practices
• Optional EU 6.01
• UE 7.01 – Internship

The skills acquired during this training are in line with those of the RNCP record

The responsibility for approving internship sites is carried out in consultation with the head of the UFR (Teaching and Research Unit), the director of the school, the academic coordinator, and the scientific director.

All IRIBODE training sites are qualifying. They are identified and submitted annually for review. Accreditation is renewed and granted each year following this review. The training sites in the eight operating theaters of Réunion allow students to experience diverse patient care across all areas identified in the competency framework.

A nine-week internship in France allows IBODE students to discover the practice of the profession in other sectors and thus complement their skills development.

IRIBODE also maintains a list of research internship sites in diverse settings: research laboratories or clinical settings (Joint Research Unit for Diabetes, Atherothrombosis, and Therapies in Réunion and the Indian Ocean – UMR Détroit, UMR for Infectious Processes in Tropical Island Environments – PIMIT, Indian Ocean Perinatal Studies Center – CEPOI, Pharmaco-Immunocological Studies – EPI).,  ReUniSim).

The surgical assistant internship allows students to grasp the procedures and activities related to competency 3, which is broken down into 14 sub-competencies. Internship sites are recognized as qualifying due to the presence of a supervising physician who ensures the availability of resources, including qualified professionals in surgery or research, and activities that facilitate genuine learning. These internships are organized to allow students to develop this competency in accordance with the requirements of the competency framework.

Identification sheets for each clinical placement site are created and updated annually. These sheets will be updated during the first semester according to the requirements of the decree of April 27, 2022, "UE Professional Training Periods" sheet. Clinical placement sites in mainland France are chosen based on the project of the Operating Room Nursing School (EIBO) and after consultation with the relevant regional IBODE school. Regarding "research" placement sites: the Nursing Training Institutes (IES) of the University Hospital of Réunion have a sufficient and diverse list of "research" placement sites for operating room nursing students.

The work placement periods represent 47 ECTS credits. The clinical disciplines covered in the placements must be representative of the various professional situations encountered in the training of scrub nurses. Throughout the training program, the placements allow students to acquire the 9 competencies and validate the 5 competency blocks of the certification framework.

The clinical training program, consisting of 47 weeks of internship, should allow students to address surgery at all ages of life, conventional and outpatient surgery, endoscopic surgery, interventional radiology surgery, surgical programming, to explore the different roles of the scrub nurse (surgical assistant, instrument technician, circulating nurse) in the different vascular, septic, aseptic and prosthetic phases, emergencies, to discover the developments linked to the development of new technologies and in particular the rise of robotic surgery.

Internships are regulated as follows:

• 26 weeks of mandatory clinical placements are required in the following surgical, interventional, and related departments: Hygiene, Sterilization, Interventional Radiology, Endoscopy, Conventional and Outpatient Musculoskeletal Surgery, and Conventional and Outpatient Visceral and Vascular Surgery (a minimum of 8 weeks is required in the latter two departments). Six weeks of placements are dedicated to familiarizing students with the procedures and activities related to Competency 3 in their chosen specialty.
• 4-week research internship
• 6 weeks of surgical assistant internship allowing the student to understand the procedures and activities related to competency 3
• The remaining 17 weeks of internships are carried out in locations chosen in consultation with the teaching team, based on the student's professional project, experiences, completed dissertation work, skills still to be developed and the school's educational project.

Internships are based on 35 hours per week. Schedules vary depending on the host organization and learning methods. Night, weekend, or holiday shifts are possible provided the student receives supervision. During each internship, professionals at the host organization will offer full or partial validation of skills and complete the evaluation form with a precise and factual justification. The student's evaluation will take into account their level of education (semester of study, theoretical instruction received, prior learning, etc.), their progress, and their acquired skills. The evaluation form allows for the measurement of the student's progress and their degree of skill acquisition based on criteria and indicators referenced in the skills framework.

• Specifics of the "research" internship: The "research" internship can take place during the four semesters, preferably during the second and third semesters, corresponding to the completion of the Research modules.

The aim of this internship is to involve the student in primarily scientific research (though fields such as education and the humanities are not excluded) and to understand its objectives, methodology, and implications based on hypothetical outcomes. Therefore, any approved research project, whether biomedical, translational, or in the humanities, social sciences, law, or engineering, is eligible for the internship. Research projects with validation, such as a hospital-based clinical research program (PHRC) or a hospital-based nursing and paramedical research program (PHRIP), are particularly desirable. Involvement in the research can take place at all stages: project design and protocol writing, conducting the research itself, and analyzing and interpreting the results.

The student may be involved in different stages of the research protocol.

The objectives of this internship are:

To become familiar with and understand the entire research process:

• to become aware of and understand the current protocol;
• Research prerequisite: bibliographic analysis;
• research objectives;
• methods used (possibly discuss other methods that could have been used);
• problems that arose: technical, methodological, ethical…;
• importance of expected results on practice, consider hypotheses of results if study not completed;
• notion of gradation of the importance of a research project within research in general;
• to be able to define what this research process has contributed to one's professional approach.

Participation in a stage of the research protocol:

• Internship supervisor: researchers and research professors from recognized structures (CRC, CIC, DRC research teams), PHRC investigators,
• Internship location: This could be a hospital department (clinical research), a clinical investigation center, or an accredited laboratory (more fundamental research or research in the humanities). An agreement must be drawn up between the internship supervisor and the school, as well as between the research institution and the school.
• Internship Report: The report summarizing this research internship will be presented in the form of a concise report, 6 to 8 pages long, and will be given orally to a professor, a member of the school's teaching staff, and the internship supervisor. The purpose of this report is to describe the research protocol, assess the student's understanding of the subject as a whole, and also of the specific period during which the student is involved in the internship. It will focus on describing the aim(s), objective, hypotheses, methodology, and the student's level of involvement. This report will allow the student and supervisors to evaluate the internship and assess its contribution to this research process.

• not covered by an employer or by an organization managing continuing education, (student or CPF), amounting to €6,250 (with pro-rata in case of repeating a year or additional training, pro rata to the hours of training attended).
• covered by an employer or by an organization managing continuing education (Funding Organizations (OPCO, Transitions Pro), France Travail or Employer) in the amount of €12,500 (With pro-rata in case of repeating or additional training, in proportion to the hours of training followed).

Candidates who bear the cost of their training must commit, by signing an agreement co-signed by the board of directors of the managing organization, to paying the tuition fees set by the latter.

When the cost of the training is borne by the employer, the agreement mentioned in the previous paragraph is signed by the latter.

The conditions for accessing the training are regulated:

(See Article 5). The authorized capacity is limited in accordance with the provisions of the decree of June 10, 2021. Admitted candidates must have successfully completed the selection process defined in Article 8, which certifies that they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to undertake the training. The educational quality of the training provided is monitored by the regional health agency, as is the safety of the training environment for learners, in accordance with current regulations.

After agreement from the director general of the regional health agency, schools must inform candidates, at the time of their registration for the selection process, of the date of posting of the final results as well as the number of places offered.

(See Art. 6) Admission to training leading to the State Diploma of Operating Room Nurse is subject to the candidate selection process defined in Article 8.

The selection of candidates is organised by the schools authorised to provide this training in accordance with the provisions of article R. 4383-2 of the public health code, under the control of the director general of the territorially competent regional health agency.

(See Art. 13.) The results of the selection process are valid only for the academic year for which it was organised.

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Holders

• of a State Diploma in Nursing
• a state diploma in midwifery
• of a state-recognized nursing diploma and a diploma recognized at the master's level.

Students who have completed the third year of the second cycle of medical studies;

Candidates register for the selection process by submitting their eligibility application, as defined in Article 9, directly to the training school(s) of their choice. After approval from the Director General of the Regional Health Agency, the schools must inform candidates, at the time of their registration for the selection process, of the date the final results will be posted and the number of places available.

(See Article 8) The candidate selection process includes an initial review of applications and an admission interview. The documents required for this application are listed in Article 9.

(See Article 9) The deadline for submitting applications for admission, for an academic year beginning in September or October, is set between 1^er April and June 15th.

When submitting their application, candidates with disabilities may request adjustments to the conditions of the admission interview provided for in Article 10.

The eligibility test:

The elements of the eligibility file are assessed in light of the training requirements listed in Annex IV and marked out of 20 points by a pair of evaluators consisting of a state-certified operating room nurse with three years of professional experience or a state-certified operating room nurse manager and a permanent trainer or a director of an operating room nursing school.

(See Art. 10) The individual admission interview is evaluated by one or more groups of the admission jury, each composed of: – a surgeon or a state-certified operating room nurse participating in clinical teaching and having at least three years of experience as an operating room nurse; a state-certified operating room nurse health manager, permanent trainer or director of the school, or a state-certified operating room nurse holding a level 7 diploma.

Lasting a maximum of 20 minutes, the admission interview is graded out of 20 points. It includes an oral presentation by the candidate on their professional project (8 points), followed by an interview with the jury (12 points).

The purpose of this test is:

• to assess the candidate's ability to express themselves and organize their ideas to argue coherently on the elements presented in the eligibility file;
• to assess the candidate's skills and ability to follow the training;
• to assess the candidate's career plan and motivation.

A score below average on this test is disqualifying. Depending on the number of candidates, there may be additional sub-juries composed of:

Following the evaluation of eligibility files, candidates who have obtained a score of 10 out of 20 or higher are declared eligible.

Following the admission interview, the admission jury establishes the ranking list, respecting the limit of the authorized capacity in accordance with Article 5. This list includes a main list and a supplementary list.

In the event of a tie between two or more candidates, admission is declared in the following order of priority:

1. The candidate who obtained the highest score in the admission interview;
2. The candidate with the highest eligibility score in the event that the condition in point 1 could not separate the candidates.
3. When, in a school or group of schools, the supplementary list established after the selection process has not filled all the available places, the principal(s) of the schools concerned may call upon candidates on the supplementary list of other schools who remained unassigned after the admissions procedure at those schools. These candidates are admitted to the schools within the limit of available places. Among the applications received by a school, priority is given to those from candidates who have passed the selection process at the regional or sub-regional level.

(See Article 12) The results of the selection process are posted at the headquarters of each school concerned, in a location accessible for consultation at all times, and published on its website. All candidates are personally notified of their results in writing. If, within ten days of the posting, a candidate on the main list or the supplementary list has not confirmed in writing their wish to enroll in the program, they are presumed to have declined their admission or their place on the supplementary list, and their place is offered to the next eligible candidate on the supplementary list.

The list of assignments is sent by the director of each school to the director general of the regional health agency, no later than one month after the start of the school year.

Other(s): By selection test

• candidates holding either a diploma, certificate or other qualification mentioned in Article L. 4311-3 or Article L. 4311-12 of the Public Health Code allowing them to practice the nursing profession without limitation or an authorization to practice issued by the regional prefect in application of Article L. 4311-4 of the Public Health Code.
• may be admitted to the training program, up to a limit of five percent of the school's capacity:
• holders of the State Diploma in Midwifery;
• students who have completed the third year of the second cycle of medical studies;
• holders of a state-recognized nursing diploma and a diploma recognized at the master's level.

Their number in relation to all students in the same training session is defined in consultation with the territorially competent regional health agency.

(Art. 14.) By way of derogation from Articles 8 to 12, certain candidates may be admitted to the training program, up to a limit of five percent of the school's capacity. These candidates must hold the State Diploma of Midwife;

• students who have completed the third year of the second cycle of medical studies;
• of a state-recognized nursing diploma and a diploma recognized at the master's level.

Their number in relation to all students in the same training session is defined in consultation with the territorially competent regional health agency.

For these candidates, the selection process consists solely of the admission interview defined in Article 10. Upon admission to the training program, these candidates may be exempted from the validation of some course units by the school director, after consultation with the relevant academic committee responsible for the individual academic assessment of students. These exemptions are granted after a comparison between the candidates' prior training and the course units of the State Diploma for Operating Room Nurses.

(Art. 15.) By way of derogation from Articles 8 to 12 and within the limit of five percent of the first-year student body, persons holding a foreign nursing diploma that does not allow them to practice in France may be admitted. To be admitted, these persons must take tests to assess their professional level and a test to assess their proficiency in French.

These selection tests are organised under the responsibility of the school director, in consultation with the cultural service of the French embassy of the country concerned.

The topics are proposed and corrected by the teaching team of the school chosen by the candidate.

15 seats

From early March 2026 to early April 2026. The registration form is available on the CHU website.

Class of 2022 – 2024: 100% (14 IBODE students/14)

Class of 2023 – 2025: 90,9% (10 IBODE students/11)

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Immediate post-training: integration into the second year of medical school

Post-distance training: studies for health management, director of care, or university course within the framework of a Master's degree accessible via VAE.

The sectors of activity and types of employment targeted by this training correspond to those listed in the RNCP record

Upon obtaining the state diploma of operating room nurse, professionals can work in public or private hospitals as operating room nurses.