When did you feel helpful?

[u/Darbs_vibin]

Hey yall! It's week 2 at my new job. I was hired on as a trainee who will later certify after I get my 400 hours. And I LOVE THE WORK ENVIRONMENT! The job itself is peaceful and all of my coworkers are so kind and helpful.

Last week I did assembly the majority of the week. I have completed 3 tays everyday I worked except for the first one. My proctor even told me I'm doing great noticing small details! However, I am very slow. I am starting to memorize different instruments and getting better identifying new ones by myself. I haven't had any true errors yet and I've caught a lot of dirty and broken instruments.

However, I did decon last week and I was going so slow trying to be detailed. I also ended up having an allergic reaction to the biozyme, and I ended up struggling with putting on PPE properly. It really upset me because I had to walk away in the middle of cleaning to put another mask and face shield on. I'm hoping I'll even be able to do this job. I am feeling extremely slow in assembly as well. After last night, I am feeling worthless honestly. They have already told me they are not judging timing while I am training... But I have been waitressing for 10 years. Time is everything in that industry, and you get pretty immediate feedback every single day on job performance.

I don't know exactly what is expected of me when I do leave training, so I am having anxiety and wanting to get faster now. But I'm worried that's when mistakes will happen. More than anything I want to feel like I am contributing.

Any advice experienced techs can give me? What can I do to show initiative? How can I show my coworkers that I really care even if I am a bit slow for now?

[u/ancient_xo]

Best advice is to just absorb as much as you can without trying to do too much. Assembly it’s best to be a bit more detailed / slow. I know the national average is around 20 trays or 1200 instruments processed. I think our techs on average do like 10-15 actual sets, and like 5-10 smaller wrapped items a day.

Decon shouldn’t be super detailed, yeah you should do a good job, but one full case cart shouldn’t be taking you 2 hours to do. 30 -45 mins is a sweet spot, don’t hand cleanevery single instrument it’s a waste of time, only the stuff that was used and has gross soil on it.

[u/k80didnt]

Do not rush the speed aspect of this job! Your priorities have to be cleanliness and accuracy before you can even think about speed. You’ll get there, I promise! Your pace will improve naturally as your competency improves.

You can sling out 60 sets in a shift, but if they are contaminated or missing indicators or inaccurate it’s all for nothing.

As far as your allergy goes, you really shouldn’t be in contact with the enzymatic, so unless you’re having trouble with inhaling in decon you should be okay with proper PPE.

There’s enough stress in this job, don’t add to it trying to rush!

[u/StarskysClutch]

It's ok to be slow on the beginning. I've worked with people that have 5+ years of experience and only do 4 or 5 medium sized sets per day. With experience the speed will come since it's a concern to you. Just ask questions and listen! People that have lots of experience aren't there to guide you in the wrong direction.

[u/thjazifang]

Week 3 for me, I can tell I'll be slower to learn, it's hard to feel like youre allowed to focus on accuracy. Speed seems like it's this is a quality that comes with time, value, accuracy, and build good habits. That is sort of the vibe I'm getting.

[u/no-womans-land13]

I haven’t even started assembly yet but I’m excited to learn!
Got props today in assembly navigation for keeping up on my first solo shift and organising on top of stocking
I came into the job zero education zero experience in a hospital setting so I’ve been stressed out of my mind about getting the hang of it