In healthcare, an orderly (also known as a ward assistant, nurse assistant or healthcare assistant) is a hospital attendant whose job consists of assisting medical and nursing staff with various nursing and medical interventions. The highest role of an orderly is that of an operations assistant. An operations assistant requires people who are knowledgeable in advanced medical terminology and assist with specialist surgery setups, and typically an operations assistant understands more about surgical procedures than does a registered nurse working outside of theatres. An operations assistant is a direct assistant to consultant-level doctors more than to nurses. These duties are classified as routine tasks involving no risk for the patient.