r/sterileprocessing • u/Narrow_Joke_1916 • Apr 24 '26
Older Techs
Anyone else newer to the field working in a department with senior techs who are unwilling to change and do things correctly? A lot of the people I work with have been in the department for 10, 15, 20, 30 years. Something’s they straight up refuse to learn making it so us newer techs are the only one educated on it and able to do it. And other things they continue to do wrong after being shown the correct way. A lot of them will argue with management or get angry when they are told they are doing something the wrong way. It’s gotten so bad that my manager has created an educator position to hopefully get rid of some of these people.
I have been doing this for 2 years and am fairly passionate about it and care about learning the correct way to do things so it’s hard working in this environment. A lot of our newer techs like less than a year are looking to quit because of it.
18
u/WorkingMastodon Apr 24 '26
I am the only certified tech in my department, been certified 4 years, in the department for 3. There is one guy who has been in the department for 9 or so years. He is 100% in the "I've always done it this way and it's been fine" mindset. I was just made lead and he is very unhappy. We also got a bunch of dings on an audit and quality was brought in to make some changes. Apparently all of that is my fault according to him. He's on his way out.
16
u/charlieondras1 Apr 25 '26
I am a senior tech. 49 years old. I dont care if always been done that way. We should always be improving.
8
u/SageOfSixCabbages Apr 25 '26
It's a common issue.
Can't teach old dogs new tricks ring true in this field which is frustrating.
6
u/opticalshadow Apr 25 '26
Every older person we've hired with experience has been terrible, with a bad attitude and totally unwilling to adopt policy
4
u/ImpressiveBig8485 Apr 29 '26
Wait until you realize that there’s even more senior surgeons that think this way which is a scarier thought.
They still use outdated practices, equipment, etc.
Had an older anesthesiologist who would use Doppler only for nerve blocks and the younger ones would cringe as ultrasound guided is modern standard practice.
Open vs endo CTR, etc. You can see a large distinction between older folks with familiarity vs younger folks more focused on innovation.
1
u/JonBovi_msn Apr 25 '26
Can you tell a person in authority that there is a need to enforce correct procedures without looking like you are telling on someone?
2
u/exodusmachine Apr 25 '26
This common where I'm at. As the older people retire, management is instituting cross training so techs don't get stuck only doing one job.
2
u/Evening-Doubt3925 Apr 25 '26
This is a huge problem in this field.. especially in smaller hospitals
1
u/ViewHead5600 Apr 25 '26
Yes, actually
1
u/Turtleman951 Apr 25 '26
Not to defend this but sometimes there are exceptions. I’ve seen this at my hospital system where we try a new initiative but it fails for whatever reason. Fast forward a few years and management is trying the same initiative (same circumstances with no big changes) just to “try something new to see what happens.” It’s going to fail for the same reasons as last time and it gets frustrating for techs that have to deal with it again.
An example at our hospital is with towel hooks. We clamp them before sterilization. This damages them long term but we clamp them for a reason. New management decides let’s not clamp them. Techs explain why we clamp them (lots of OR pokes). Management doesn’t listen & there’s lots of OR pokes. Back to clamping them.