By Tony Thurmond, CRCST, CHL, CIS, FHSPA
Professionalism and pride in one’s work are evident in employees’ daily actions and in the outcomes of the collective sterile processing department (SPD) team. They give employees the confidence to tackle their critical tasks to the best of their ability and, perhaps, the desire to master new skills to advance in the profession.
Many professional experiences come with challenges or uncertainty, which can shake one’s confidence. Self-pride and professionalism are what help us power through difficult situations and setbacks, allowing us to see them as opportunities for growth that will benefit us personally and professionally. Pride in the profession means finding deep satisfaction in the quality and impact of our work. Sterile processing professionals must never lose sight of the impact of their roles, decisions and contributions each day. Drawing on the understanding that successful surgeries and other patient procedures could not happen without our knowledge, expertise and dedication to safety and quality is critically important to keep us in the moment of our tasks and never lose sight of the profound importance of each process and step. Knowing that so many other teams throughout our facility depend on our efforts and exceptional service is impactful to our enduring professionalism and performance.
What we do matters deeply – to the departments and professionals we serve and, above all, to the patients and their loved ones. We are experts with essential skills and knowledge about instruments and every intricate step throughout device processing. There is no room for shortcuts or diminished performance because losing sight of the importance of our roles – even for one shift or during one step in a process – can have devastating consequences for the patient. Of course, there are times when our workload and pressures feel overwhelming and stressful; however, those are times when we rely on our professionalism and pride in our abilities to meet those challenges head-on and demonstrate once again that our excellent work and expertise matter.
The following are essential drivers for long-term professional growth and a commitment to quality and patient safety:
Commit to Continuous Development
We become stronger in our roles when we engage in both personal and team development. Self-development hinges on our ongoing push to build our job skills and pursue continuing education. Earning certifications is an effective way to build job knowledge or prepare for a leadership role (or help you train or educate a new employee). Find your professional strengths and be willing to volunteer to train others to strengthen theirs. Look at the tasks you perform and consider what you can learn to perform them better. Team development can take the form of group education and in-services on various subjects (such as new processes or steps that have historically been challenging for the department). For example, if your department has challenges with vendor loaner trays, ask the representative to provide targeted instrument education, and have the sterile processing team and vendor discuss pain points and seek solutions together to improve. If the SPD struggles to communicate effectively with surgical staff, work together to develop better communication methods and a stronger path to addressing various issues. An effective team-building strategy is to run mock scenarios. One example exercise is a mass-casualty scenario, with a lead communicator, the “runners” (those jumping in to handle the immediate workload) and someone responsible for monitoring supply and instrument par levels.
Give SPD Tours
Inviting facility executives, surgical staff and other interdisciplinary colleagues to take a full-department tour is among the most effective ways to demonstrate firsthand what you do and the detail and importance of each step. Take time to explain the equipment in use and demonstrate the steps involved in testing and monitoring cleaning and sterilization. Decontamination-area tours provide a valuable opportunity to teach about the importance of point-of-use treatment and the challenges that arise when it is not done properly. Show them the time required to properly clean, disinfect, prep and sterilize items to be turned over for another procedure. Take pride in your broad knowledge and speak confidently about the critical importance of each step and how variations and shortcuts must never occur for the sake of patient safety.
Build Stronger Teams
Take time to get to know your co-workers better. Learn their strengths and challenges; perhaps their challenge is your strength, and you could offer some helpful insights. Ask your co-workers if they have noticed anything in your work that could use improvement (don’t be afraid to ask; it shows initiative and is an effective way to grow and improve).
Share the Outcomes
Post an information board in the SPD to demonstrate achieved goals and areas for improvement (e.g., tray errors and a running graph of percentages and other outcomes). It is helpful for employees to know specific outcomes, successes and key numbers. Another advantage: It shows visitors, such as surveyors, that you monitor quality measures.
Building Pride Across the SPD
It takes everyone in the SPD to build pride within the profession and department. Promoting pride and building professionalism takes work, but the rewards are plentiful. The greatest reward is knowing we are valuable contributors to patient care. We may never know the patients, but because of pride in our work, we know we have helped set them up for a great outcome.
Tony Thurmond, CRCST, CHL, CIS, FHSPA, is sterile processing manager at Dayton Children’s Hospital.
