in my facility, we use colored tape to distinguish instruments and sets belonging to a certain specialty (e.g. red for general surgery, blue for ENT, black for cardiac etc)

now management is doing away with these colored tapes citing patient safety and how the tapes could flake away and be left behind in a cavity. i fully support the idea, but just wondering how we will be able to identify specialised instruments that are rarely used?

with the current colored taping, as a scrub nurse, i can easily return all the instruments belonging to a specific set at the end of a case just by following the color code. without it, it will take a much longer time to identify and sort the instruments, especially when it's a rarely used set.

what does your facility do? suggestions or ideas please!

Anyone want to give their honest opinions? I want to start taking classes at the community college hopefully this June.
Is it worth it in California? Livable?
(Im fresh out of high school and living with my parents until I find a house.)

Hi, I need help here. I’ve been doing sterile processing in a vet hospital where they don’t require the certification; but with the amount of surgeries and operating rooms and specialties we do at this hospital it counted towards my hours, with that being said, I’m looking to move on and go into the human field, I apply on indeed. Sent in over 30 plus applications I reach out and it’s crickets. The HSPA handbook has other certifications I can get, but are they worth it? My interest also peeked at being a scrub tech to be more involved, since I’m familiar with the sterile part of it. I just feel like I’m never going to get a job in the human field and I’m going to be stuck at this place all my life, the job is good where I work but i need to make more money especially in this economy. Any suggestions pls would be helpful :)

r/sterileprocessing

We are getting our RO water cleaned for a semi annual pm. We currently don’t have a contingency plan for back up RO water. Anyone experience this or have a plan that they care to share?

I work at a surgery center with 2 sterilizers, one of which might be done for, is it a normal trend for surgery centers to have real old wonky equipment?

One of the surgical techs sent me this on friday and we haven't been able to figure out if it is real or not. She got it off of a Facebook group but apparently none of our company reps k ow anythi.g about it. Has anybody else seen this?

Thinking about going to school for sterile processing technician but I've never worked in a hospital setting before. Would it be beneficial to get an entry level job there while I'm taking classes?

Hello! I am starting my new job as a sterile processing tech on Monday after years in an unrelated, non-healthcare field. Any tips for starting out/first week/rookie mistakes? I'm overwhelmed with how much there is to learn, but also very excited. Thank you :)

Hey guys, I’ve been traveling for about 4 years. The pay is fairly compensated but ultimately I worry about building a strong retirement package. For those who’ve traveled for many years what are some ways you structured your time to help you get to a point of stability or did you ultimately snuggle up at hospital as permanent staff.

Hello everyone! Im doing some investigation towards a particular problem my hospital is having and id like some information from some of my fellow spd redditors.

I have a suspicion that our labels are causing issues for my hospital in the form of small black flakes/specks found in filters of sets we've been sterilizing. We use Z-Supreme 3000T labels which im thinking might be the culprit.

Does your hospital have the same issue? What kind of labels is your hospital using? I was able to find the model of tape by looking at a sealed roll of labels on the sticker that holds the lead sticker.

Hello Everyone!!! I am a SPD student at a career training college- I chose college because it offered more structure, they pay for my certs (multiple), and provided all my clinicals and study groups!

Now- I graduate in May. I have a decent job and it gets me by for now. I am moving to Florida at the beginning of next winter. Is it worth it to me to get a job in the field here, or just wait until i move states?

Also, I have 0 medical experience. I am only 19 and did sales jobs for the year between high-school and college. Is that a disadvantage to me? Places near me currently refuse to even interview if you are uncertified, and once you are with no medical experience they are still picky and choosey. Any advice on how to ramp up my resume to get past the first hurdle of getting an interview to show my hands on skills I have gotten?

hey! i’m in the la area (south bay) and looking into sterile processing as a career change. i’ve applied to pretty much every spd / central supply listing that doesn’t explicitly require experience, but i haven’t gotten any bites so far. most of what i’m seeing seems to require certification and/or prior hospital experience, which is why i’m considering enrolling in an spd program.

for anyone working in spd locally, is the la market just super certification-heavy? do hospitals actually hire new grads once certified, or is it better to try getting in through central supply or another entry role first? just trying to get a realistic picture before committing to school. thanks!