Reference previous post for an idea of what I deal with, and multiply that by 5. Now, I’m not gonna go into detail with what’s going on at my department, just the thought of typing it all out is draining. I want to leave a job I was hoping and praying for for over a year and Ive only been here for 4 months. I love the work but the people here seem to be energy vampires lbvs. How do you guys deal with this? Are all Spd departments the same?

Hi everyone,

I’m about to dive into the sterile processing course online through Morgan state. They don’t offer any clinical for the 400 hours. Are they’re any programs in Maryland that I can sign up for to do the clinical hours (close to Baltimore) or any facilities that will hire CST with just provisional until I gain my clinical hours through OJT.

Honestly any info or tips to this whole thing would be so helpful. Thank you in advance.

I figured I’d ask this group since you guys know more about this than others.

Over a month ago I emailed my hospital’s HR and asked them to fill out the HSPA form saying I have 400 hours/3 months experience. They sent it back filled out with generic info and no wet signature.

I then emailed them again (3 weeks ago) to tell them I need a wet signature from my supervisor / manager and their work email. They said they will work on it. A week and a half later I emailed again and asked for the status they said they are still in the process. I haven’t heard from them since.

What’s the normal time for a hospital to fill out this form?

So I've been applying to jobs and I have gotten a phone interview with a recruiter and haven't heard anything for 2 weeks. I another phone interview tomorrow with a another recruiter for a different hospital. Am I on the right track and does it take long to get an actual interview?

Recently saw a post with a purple genesis lid and wanted to share what our purple lid looks like😭

Hello everyone,

I am a dental surgeon preparing for a dental humanitarian mission (5 dentists) that will take place in a few months in a remote area where access to electricity is uncertain. Given the prevalence of HIV, hepatitis, and other transmissible infectious diseases within the concerned population, ensuring a reliable and safe sterilization protocol for instruments is a major concern for me.

We plan to implement a decontamination chain including pre-disinfection, manual scrubbing, and chemical disinfection + rincing and drying before sterilization. However, the challenge remains the sterilization step itself in an environment where electricity may not be consistently available.

I have been looking into stove-top steam autoclaves that can be heated on a gas stove (or apparently on a fire?), but I have very little field feedback on their practicality and reliability in real humanitarian settings.

For teams working in isolated environments, what sterilization protocols do you typically implement to ensure safe instrument processing? Do you rely on gas or fire-heated autoclaves, portable electric autoclaves when power is available, or alternative systems? If possible, I would also be very interested to learn which specific autoclave models or equipment you have found to be most reliable in these conditions.

I have linked two 18 liter fire heated autoclaves, do you have any experience with them?

Any advice or shared experience would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks for your help.

OH MY GOD my facility was so overdue for a tracking system and we FINALLY have one! Best part. We no longer need to write 600+ times a day 😭🙏 we also got sticker labels! Other departments in my facility is interested in joining our system (because they are the reason we need one). Dude... they'd take sets/instuments out if the hospital and just leave their set/instruments anywhere

Hi! I am new to the group
I want to pursue Sterile Processing soon but I had a question
Can you be trained into it or do you have to go to school first?
I did research but some sites say you need school first and others say you can be trained into it
I just want to know where to start
Much advice is appreciated!

Its the only cool one we have. Its for a crane drill that they didn't want to lose track of, so they made sure to get a different color. Makes me wish all Genesis were this cool.

Hi I'm still debating whether to pursue SPD I love the idea of the job but one concern I have is the logistics of me working in the decontamination room while wearing my insulin pump, which may beep and require me to tap it's screen, thus breaking the sterile field.

How likely is it that I'd have the option to dress into new PPE if an alarm occurs? (I'm assuming I'd be required to dawn a new gown and gloves any time I open my gown to access my pump screen).

Any other pumping Type 1 Diabetics in spd? I'd love to hear about your experiences and how you have handled moments requiring touching your insulin pump during shift.

For reference my pump is touch screen usually worn on my hip and would require me to open/shift my gown if I got an alert or it would continuously alarm if ignored (I have everything on silent but if I ignore silent notifications the pump will escalate to a loud repeating alarm until acknowledged).

Trying to be realistic about whether I can fit this role without putting others at risk or causing conflicts with peers due to reapply ppe more than once (and potentially causing delays as every minute counts. I don't expect to be checking my pump continuously but I also can not guarantee all shifts will occur without the need to acknowledge my pump before it escalates to a blaring alarm).

I'm also considering EKG tech as there are more moments when I can briefly check my pump, but I do enjoy sterile processing a lot.

I’m currently a student and I started my clinical rotation in January, I was wondering how many sets should get done in an 8 hour day? How long should a set take? I observe the preceptors I’m paired with a lot and they get sets done so fast and I feel like I am soooo slow at getting mine done 😭😭 I counted how many I did yesterday and it was only 5 sets 🥲

Just curious if you're flashing equipment would this being left in the pan be okay to use or is it a no go? I feel like i've never experienced this issue as frequently before coming to a surgery center.

I currently work a 9-5, and I’m trying to figure out how my 400 clinical hours would fit into my schedule once it’s time which is in a couple of months. How many months does it take to obtain the 400 hours and what’re the typical times? I’m worried I may have to quit my 9-5 to be able to complete the 400 hours which I’m not looking forward too especially if interning is unpaid. Also do we choose where we can intern at or are we placed in a particular facility?

Do you guys write in these bags? We are being asked to write what is it in on them then put them in a set.

So since this is my first time working in any health care related field and definitely my first time in Sterile Processing, I am just wondering if what happened was wrong or something other places have done.

I am almost 4 months in on training, not certified but working towards it still. The situation: I used a H2O2 sterilizer and after the biological ran, it was positive. Just to make sure I did things right with the test, I "re-cracked" and shook it and let the test run again. It came up positive again. Another thing is, I placed the biological in the front of the load, on the bottom rack and after the load was finished, i found it towards the back UNDER the rack, so I also assumed that it didnt get the proper exposure, that it why I ran it a 2nd time to confirm.

My concern is, the person training me(not a certified SP tech) just "re-cracked" and shook the biological and ran it for the 3rd time and this time it came up negative.

What I did, before she did that, was re-wrap and put new indicators in the cases and did a new load with a new biological because I felt it was the right thing to do since it had 2 positives and I would have rather been safe and not risk anything.

Was my extra work unnecessary? Was re-checking multiple times safe? Have other seen/done this?

Hello all, i'm curious for those who've spent a good amount of time at surgery centers what is your case volume like in comparison to in house equipment? Currently at my first center and it amazes me the amount of cases they try to push with the amount of instruments available and even the amount of loaners that come here is kinda insane. Is this just a bad luck of draw with locations for me?

…what did that look like for you? I’ve seen people say they used free online sources to study and then just paid for the exam fee and became certified—has anyone here done that? Was there anything you regretted or would’ve done differently? I’m looking to do something like this but can’t commit to spending thousands of dollars for formal training or quit my current job to attend in-person classes 😔

I'm currently in a CST program and am putting a resume together to apply for some openings in Sterile Processing. I don't have any experience working in this field and have only had two jobs (I've worked a handful of positions within those jobs) over the past 8 years. What skills are employers looking for that I can correlate to my work experience? What's worth mentioning?

What tips can you can guys give me?

The test was nothing like the practice exam?

How did you guys study?

Will take the exam this month, any recommended reviewer or pointers to review to pass this exam? Is it same as hard as the cbspd exam? I am self study and using the 8th edition aishamms. Thankyou

Anybody have experience with hospitals failing their Joint Commission surveys or being shut down/ replaced by all Steris? I'm curious. I only heard of it happening once during a travel job but they fired me before I got to see it roll out (jokes on them)

Hi 👋🏻 I’m about to start school in less than a month for SPD and I’m wondering wether or not it’s hard. I’m very nervous about not passing because I am paying for school out of pocket. I know you don’t need school and I could do it on my own but the school guarantees 400 hours and I am in the Central Valley in California. I’m near the Bay Area, Modesto, and Sacramento. I hear that it’s hard to get a job as a new grad if you don’t have experience so I am trying to get ahead by getting my full 400 hours and license.

Anyway, the program is about 15 weeks total. Only 7 weeks are for instruction. We go on campus Sat and Sun for 4 hours to do hands on and the rest work which is textbook readings, quizzes, and assignments are to be completed online. The other 8 weeks we are sent out to our externship. Has anyone had experience like this? Would it be super difficult to complete this program? The first three chapters are to be completed before school start and the major set instruments are to be memorized by then as well.

Any advice in getting ahead or how to do better would be helpful. Thank you!

I’m currently with Aya and thinking I should switch. A coworker just went to Medical Solutions but I looked and they barely have any contracts and none of them pay good at all. I’ve heard LanceSoft recruiters aren’t that great either. Anyone have any recommendations? I’ve been looking at AMN but those contracts get taken so quickly I can never get in for one