Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast

M.E.N.T.O.R. Mini-Series: T is for Training with Vanessa Frank

• Bill Rishell • Season 1 • Episode 12

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Proper training in Sterile Processing isn't just about meeting requirements—it's about saving lives. When staff understand not only what to do but why they're doing it, the entire department transforms.<br><br>In this illuminating conversation with Vanessa Frank, Clinical Resource Manager at Advantage Support Services, we dive deep into what makes training programs truly effective. Vanessa shares her unexpected journey into sterile processing, beginning with an interview where she couldn't identify basic instruments but evolved into becoming a passionate educator and advocate for the profession.<br><br>The discussion explores how training must adapt to different learning styles, generational differences, and varying levels of experience. Vanessa reveals powerful strategies like taking technicians to observe surgeries so they can witness firsthand the vulnerable patients whose lives depend on properly processed instruments. She emphasizes that effective educators need patience, adaptability, and a willingness to continuously learn—qualities that can't simply be assigned but must be developed.<br><br>Leadership support emerges as perhaps the most crucial element of successful education programs. Without managers who prioritize training time and resources, even the most dedicated educators struggle to create lasting impact. Vanessa suggests practical steps like establishing dedicated "Training Tuesdays" and ensuring educators have the authority to implement their programs effectively.<br><br>Whether you're an educator seeking new approaches, a technician looking to grow professionally, or a leader trying to strengthen your department, this episode offers actionable insights to transform how training happens in your facility. The future of sterile processing—and patient safety—depends on moving beyond checklists to create meaningful educational experiences that build both competence and commitment.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to the Sterilization Station in our special Mentor mini-series, where we are unpacking the key elements that help shape the future of sterile processing. And today we're digging into the letter T, which is for training. Now let's be honest in sterile processing we can't afford for training to be an afterthought right. It's not just about onboarding or meeting requirements, but it's about saving lives. And it's about building confidence, competence and clarity at every sink, every prep table and every sterilizer, because when people are properly trained, they don't just do the job, but they understand it right, they own it, and that ownership is what creates safer surgeries, stronger teams and sustainable careers. So with me today is someone who truly lives this out, and this is Vanessa Frank.

Speaker 1:

So Vanessa Frank is a clinical resource manager at Advantage Support Services Incorporated, where she leverages her expertise in sterile processing and healthcare management. As a chapter treasurer for the Keystone Alliance of Sterile Processing Professionals, she advocates for best practices and ongoing professional development. Her career includes roles as sterile processing technician, educator, content marketing specialist at Census Technologies and CE development support at Beyond Clean. So she comes to this conversation with over a decade of experience and she specializes in quality management, sop development and training, and currently she is pursuing a BBA in healthcare administration and management and holds several professional certifications which reflect her commitment to advancing healthcare practices. So welcome Vanessa. How's it going?

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you for that awesome introduction, Bill. I'm doing great. How are you today?

Speaker 1:

I'm doing great. I've been really looking forward to this episode and collaborating and discussing this such important topic in sterile processing, which is about training, and so I'm just really excited to have you on the podcast. This is great.

Speaker 2:

Yep, I'm excited to start.

Speaker 1:

Awesome. This is super cool. I'm really, really stoked. Sorry if I'm cheesing, but I'm pretty excited about this episode, and this miniseries is the first miniseries that I'm doing on the podcast, so it's pretty exciting. So, just to get us started, I was wondering if you could share your journey into sterile processing and what led you to focus so deeply on training and mentorship.

Speaker 2:

Sure, my story into sterile processing makes me chuckle, and I've come across plenty of folks who've had similar stories where I didn't know what sterile processing was. I was working as a nursing assistant and I got burnout and I just wanted out. So I was applying to anything and everything and I had applied to sterile processing and I went to my interview. They put instruments on the table and they're like can you tell us what any of these are? And I was like I don't know. They all look like scissors because they all had ring handles. One of them was a mayo, the rest of them were not scissors and somehow they still hired me.

Speaker 2:

I was very transparent that I'd never done this before and I actually didn't understand what I was going to be doing. I thought I was going to be working in like a supply chain logistics department until I showed up and they got me in and they got me scrubs and they walked me in and I was like where am I? Is this the land of Oz? What am I doing here? And it took like three days and I'm like this is the coolest thing I have ever seen. It's like I said like nobody knows what it is, but it's so important and so critical what sterile processing does. So you know, I literally learned everything in that department. And after six years the facility created an educator position and I was not going to put in for it because I was like I'm happy where I am. And my boss at the time came to me and asked if I was putting in for it and I said no. And he said no, you're putting in for it.

Speaker 1:

And I was like okay, I'm putting in for it.

Speaker 2:

You know, fairly interviewed by several people, and I got the job and, like most educators, got thrown in the deep end with a whole bunch of stuff and said collect this and make it work and swim. From then it just became, how do I do this? To the point where I'm like, ok, well, I have a process. Is it the best process? Probably not. And and that's where I'm like this needs to be discussed more there really needs to be effort put into supporting these like almost mid-tier roles. You're not a tech, you're not a manager, you're one of these others that are being created and people are just getting thrown in. So that's really where I stand of like of preparing people who, hey, I want to do this. Okay, cool, let's get you where. If you get that role, you're actually confident, you don't feel like you're lost.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's amazing. I really appreciate you sharing your journey, because a lot of times our path is sometimes not always created by us, right? Sometimes you almost get called into doing something and you start to do it, and then you start to realize, like you, you noticed there was, I think, sometimes in business there's a term called gap analysis, where you're measuring between where you are versus where you want to be, and you noticed it, and obviously inside of you there was this clinical educator, a teacher that didn't even know was being birthed, and now the opportunity came and you just jumped right into it. So that's really excellent, thank you. So that's really excellent, thank you.

Speaker 1:

So I want to also go a little deeper into discussing the foundation of great training. And brings me to another question which I want to ask you, which would be what makes a training program more than just a checklist Like how do you bring it to life?

Speaker 2:

That's such a good good question because I think initially it starts as a checklist. You know whether, whether you're prepared or not, you look, you sit down and you're like I have this team, what do I do with them? You know, we can't just willy nilly things, you have to plan it. That was actually a requirement at the facility for my position is, I had to do the yearly education plan and turn it in, I think, by like end of October the year prior. So I really had to plan ahead and I'll admit, like the first year, the first one, I think it was a whole bunch of you know like read this article, let's watch this webinar Cause I didn't know what I was doing, I didn't know all the resources and I did end up. You know, I had some help eventually and I tweaked things and whatnot.

Speaker 2:

But I think what really helps make a training program effective is getting to know your team. Like, everybody learns differently and I think as we become adults and get out into the workforce, people forget that or they don't care and it's like you're an adult, suck it up, do your job, but when what you're doing could potentially save or end a life, we have to do better and, and part of that is knowing. Okay, you know this person. I could walk them through the whole process, but they need to read along with me. This person they have to, like hands-on, do this bit 10 times and then it's. It is solid in their brain getting to know your team and then trying to build education around them.

Speaker 2:

So it can, and it's best to try to mix it up. You know, don't just do the same thing every month, every week, whatever. One, you're going to have learners who aren't going to absorb it and two, you're going to have folks who we've all seen it they fall asleep during an in-service because they're not engaged. That's the whole point. It's like I started really trying to figure out how to be an educator and I would look at, like my kids, as elementary school teachers and I'm like you guys are doing something right, because that's what they do is they plan all of this and they're engaged and they get involvement, interaction, and I think that's part of what's, you know, so important on a good training program is involving your team. Don't just sit there and talk at them, you know, but like, hey, let's discuss this or get them caring about something you know, maybe you know it might be like how is some instrument used, like where does it go in a patient?

Speaker 2:

What does it do? Everybody has something that makes them tick, something that they're gonna have the light bulb over their head go off, and it's as an educator you got to kind of figure that out.

Speaker 1:

That's no, that's really good, especially like you definitely like you were saying about bringing the team in and the engagement I mean even like like you were mentioning, about like being able to to make the lessons like interactive and even like to where the team, that the participants, want to be a part and they feel engaged.

Speaker 1:

And like you're saying, I've been in in-services where you are, let's see if you're coming off night shift, nocturnal, and you're like you know you can't leave until you do that in-service and you're just like you're already halfway asleep and then how do you make that engaging? It's really good. I noticed for us at the facilities I worked at it's always been in-services are created because of issues that have arisen in the department. So it's like the value add of that in-service is that a technician made a major mistake and now everyone has to relearn it right. The one bad apple spoils the bunch type of situation. So I think it's pretty interesting about the points that you made about including the team, especially if you have an actual educational team, which is something that's very something you don't really see a lot of in sterile processing departments. You have an educator or you have someone who's assigned to educate.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, without being compensated for the extra work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, for sure, for sure, For sure. But if you work for, if you work for a union job, you know for sure they're going to be expecting that extra money, if they're going to do it. No, I've been in unionized hospital jobs, so I know that you ask someone to train someone, usually what they're going to say is I don't mind doing it, but I want to get paid extra.

Speaker 2:

Yep.

Speaker 1:

But and how do you adjust? How would you say you adjust your teaching approach for different roles, like, say, it's a student or maybe an employer, maybe you have an externship program? How would you adjust your teaching approach depending upon different roles?

Speaker 2:

So kind of going back, sort of to like the previous question. It always comes back to knowing who you're teaching. So if you have someone who it's their first day of their externship and they've done classroom learning and now they have to do hands-on and it's not a practice, I mean it is they're being double checked but at the same time, like it's real, these instruments will be used on a person at some point. You have to assess where they are at a base, like find your foundation, so that then you can work with them on building them up, whether it's your extern or it's a new employee, um, especially if it's a new employee who has worked somewhere else before. I know we all do the same job but everybody does it a little differently and and there may be policies in place at your hospital that they didn't have to deal with at their hospital. So that's where you have to sit down and be like okay, like here's this what did you guys? What, what? How do you know how to reprocess it? You know, for example, power instruments more and more. You can put them through the washers, but there are some places who they're not comfortable with that, for whatever reason. They haven't updated their policies for the IFU and so they're still hand-washing them and you know you might get.

Speaker 2:

I had that happen. I had a person come in and they were shocked that we put a power system through the washroom. We're like here's the IFU. The manufacturer says it's A-OK, promised, it's actually really good for the drill, it gets it extra clean and it's got that thermal disinfection and we're great. So just it takes time and that's you know, as an educator, you might not always be granted that time and your new people might not be granted that time if they just want to get thrown into the department. But that's where it's so important to support your education plans and teammates and staff. Taking the time to learn your people and being able to get them to be the best that they can be goes a long way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's good. I mean, I appreciate this and I know I always say this on the podcast Are y'all seeing these gems that are just being dropped, these bombs that are being dropped on the podcast? I mean this is. I hope you got your pen and paper out or your iPhone ready, because Vanessa is not playing today and she is bringing some good stuff to you, so this is excellent, definitely.

Speaker 2:

I've learned over the years and I've learned from mistakes and thinking man. I wish I could have done A, b, c, x, y, z, and I can't.

Speaker 1:

So that's true and, like what you're saying, there are different approaches you have to have and you have to really consider the person that you're mentoring or precepting or educating and what exposure have they had in their school or if they're coming as a new employee to your facility, you know, not just assuming that they were given the opportunity to learn certain things, but creating your program around meeting the individual needs of where that specific person is. So I think all the things that you mentioned were just really golden and I was wondering could you share a moment where hands-on training really clicked for someone in your department or who was under your clinical education?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, to be honest, it's such a solid method to help people learn that there wasn't just one thing that jumped out, because it happens if you take the time to stand there with your person and you know if you have a competency or an SOP and you're like here, it is step one, let's do this and you go through it. You know you're in decon, all pee-peed up and all that stuff. It's so great because it really, even if someone's like I can just read it and I'll be fine, you might, you might be. There might be some terminology that you're like wait a minute. What does this word mean? Like what am I supposed to do with this part? There's no pictures. I don't know what that looks like. This is just a part number and the part numbers are all rubbed off because they're like 30 years old. I don't know what I'm doing. It really it's so effective to just get in there, put on the PPE and the 90 degree decon and just do it.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate this us being able to have this conversation and I'm pretty confident that this is adding a lot of value and really just supporting this mini series, as we're, you know, diving into education, whether it's through mastery experience, now we're networking and now we're diving into training. So this is this really good. I'm I just, I just really really think this is awesome but happy to help you know.

Speaker 1:

Thank you definitely want to transition into discussing some common gaps in sterile processing training. So what do you think are some of the most common training oversights you see in svd departments today?

Speaker 2:

so, yeah, one thing the honestly that popped to mind was lack of support for your educator and education plan. If your leadership can't show that they support the educator, your staff will also not support the educator. I've experienced it where there's some folks who were like I have work to do, this isn't important. Or if you can't consistently find a time like, hey, tuesdays are training days, depending on your OR schedule and your staffing and whatnot. But having your leadership, be like guys, no, this is important. You need to sit here, you need to learn this, because this, this and this may happen.

Speaker 2:

I think another gap that comes to mind is, as we kind of touched on it earlier, is reactive training, where we had a problem. A patient got an infection, root cause analysis all the way back. It's our fault, you know. It's kind of it's a very impactful way to learn because you saw the end result. It wasn't hypothetical. This person is having their life changed permanently, potentially, and it came from within our house. So we need to do better. But at the same time, the damage is already done. You know there are basic principles that honestly, like sometimes they're just so simple that no one thinks about them. That's where you know there are times where you're like, hey guys, we're going to talk about, you know, just doing like this, this one little step in decon. Everybody probably does it, but or everybody says they do it.

Speaker 2:

We're going to cover it again just to be sure, because if we miss this step, then this could happen, and we don't want that to happen. So we're going to talk about this.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's great, I know we, we also I'm also doing a mini series with Cliff Russell from Steris IMS, who's a product manager we're diving into the acronym CYCLE. We had a great conversation about cycles or patterns in sterile processing and now we're diving into the acronym CYCLE, and so that's. We started with the letter C, which is cleaning and decontamination and some of the same things that you just mentioned. He covered in detail. So keep your eye out, it's coming soon. So that's really great.

Speaker 1:

I mean, leadership is so important. I mean there's so many areas, every area of sterile processing has the potential of being impacted by leadership. If leadership whether it's education, whether you're going through cleaning your instruments and decontamination, sterilizing, prep and packaging and assembly, whether it's picking cases, competency, scope you know scope, reprocess, everything we do if we don't have the right leadership in place, it's just you're almost like swimming upstream, right, you're going against. You're going against because and that's the that's such a big issue.

Speaker 1:

Now, you know I've been I'll say it this way like I've been in some facilities where we had managers who were seeking validation or were very insecure, and it's very challenging because you're not getting what you need as a department. I know that's not the topic, but I just leadership is something I'm very passionate about being able to. I was able to work under Karen Cherry and it was the most impactful manager I've ever worked for and I was young in my career. I was like four years in sterile processing. I'm 43 now and I was 24 then and I was a fireball. I was just like always speaking out, always getting into these debate of conversations, and then I meet Karen Cherry and she literally provoked me by her leadership style.

Speaker 2:

Provoked you? Did she just like make you even more argumentative? Or did she like, hey, Bill, this is what you gotta do?

Speaker 1:

Well, provoked me in a good way, right. So provoked me to actually, like, observed her leadership style in action, and I had never seen anyone, you know, like kind of put someone in their place that needed to be in their place, but then the same meeting turned around and acknowledged that this person was going to be needed to help in projects.

Speaker 1:

And the way she did. It was like so clean, so crisp. I just walked into her office after this this like huddle, and I was like I saw that. And she was like like huddle and I was like I saw that. And she was like you saw what? And I was like I saw that, like that was amazing.

Speaker 1:

And she was like what are you talking about? And I was like I saw that and she was like okay Bill, okay Mr Bishisaka, okay Mr Bill. And I was like it just it changed my whole SPD career because I realized like I came in contact with a thought provoking leader and it wasn't someone who was insecure, it wasn't someone who was seeking validation, but it was someone who, like, as I started to learn her journey, it just really impacted me. So I didn't mean to come off of the conversation piece, but that just I had to share that because you're right, like everything we do is impacted by leadership and if you don't have that support, you know you'll come into sterile processing and there's certain things you're anticipating, right, you're anticipating everyone's going to be there, that it's supposed to be there.

Speaker 1:

You're anticipating there's already going to be issues. I'm trying to say there's going to be issues that arise every day. But if the things that are supposed to be in place aren't in place, that's what really makes for those very challenging departments. But anyways, that's a bonus, that's a little, that's an hors d'oeuvre. They call it hors d'oeuvres. Right, that's an hors d'oeuvre right there. But just to get back on the topic, so where do you see, in your experience, extern students, externs, being underprepared, and how do we fix that?

Speaker 2:

So in my personal experience, the facility that I had worked out you know I only worked in one for my hands-on career, but it was honestly it was such a great place we had one extern who came in and we loved her. She. I love when people purposefully choose sterile processing as like their career. They're like this is my jam, versus stumbling in by accident, like like me. So she went to a technical school and did all the classroom training, the book training and, like she came in, she's like I'm ready, let's do this. She was so excited, she was so great, like a great learner. She did all of her hours and she took tests and and then the facility was like we won't hire you without a year experience. Even though we trained her, she had to go somewhere else for a year to pick up habits that we didn't want so that then she could come back, which she did. It was great. We were all pulling for her.

Speaker 2:

But you know I see this all the time on social media is like people who go through these courses and they do all this training and stuff and they're like, hey, I need my hours and they just can't Places.

Speaker 2:

You need your certification or oh, we need you to have experience. But then it's like, well, they don't know where to go to get that experience and it's almost like their hands are tied. And then they're discouraged and they're like, why am I going to do this anyway? Because, to be honest, sterile processing does not make the buku bucks, when they could just go elsewhere for less of a headache, you know, and it's, it's just awful for them. So I think you know, trying, trying to see if your facility you know this is, this is one of those like leadership things, like see if they will pair up with your local tech schools that teach sterile processing. Yes, you can train your externs. And then, hey, you, you know, you finish your externship, you pass your certification, like, we'll hire you, you know, help, get them in because that's what they want. And then when they can't, they're discouraged and they leave and we need people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, it's so true, it's so true. And we need people. Yeah, no, it's so true, it's so true. I think there's a lot of. There's so many.

Speaker 1:

Like you know, with me I'm I'm in this current role as a sterile processing coordinator, which is like manager, supervisor, educator, flexible scope educator I'm like all wrapped into one. And I'm also the lead preceptor, because I love students. I'm so passionate about students. I had this. I had the worst experience as a student from a preceptor I had.

Speaker 1:

My preceptor was really tough, spoke negative, and it reminds me of that instrument we're talking about.

Speaker 1:

You know, we're in sterile processing, it's in the kitchen.

Speaker 1:

It's like I think they call it like the meat tenderizer and like this lady was a tenderizer from my heart because she was so tough on me, but it literally tenderized me towards wanting to be a preceptor and wanting to give back, and so for years I used to always talk about how this person kind of wounded me. But then later I listened to this podcast lady on LinkedIn and she talked about going back to those wounds and kind of re-looking at them and allowing yourself to look at them from the perspective of what's the lesson you learned versus the pain that you felt, and I had to turn that over and realize like no, sally really did me the biggest favor by being so tough and so, just as a preceptor, very passionate about helping students, and there's so many students that we've been able to help and you just see, some schools, you see they really prepare them and other schools they don't, and sometimes it's not even the school. It's just that there's so many learning styles and now you're trying to support them through learning and sometimes it's just really about understanding the best way that they learn and trying to get them the hands-on training. So I think that was great and the points that you made were really phenomenal. How do you feel leaders ensure consistency across shifts in departments and preceptors?

Speaker 2:

This is a good one, because what let's? Let's be real if you get into a department and you're at the bottom of the food chain and you really want that, like 6 am shift, you get it. But then, like you're the educator, you're in the days, you don't really want to go down to third shift. Very often that's real. Like I like to sleep at night. But you accepted that job and with it comes responsibilities Quote Spider-Man with you know.

Speaker 1:

Right, that's great, that's great.

Speaker 2:

You know, when you accept that you are going to not be your regular technician, you are going to be doing more. More is expected of you. So if it's just you, I'm sorry to say you're going to have to visit the other shifts on a regular basis because you know, oh hey, here's a stack of competencies. They're not reading them, they're not going through it, they're just like sign my name, let me go over here and do this. Yeah, not necessarily with ill will, but if you don't present it as important, they're not going to receive it as important. You know, if you're like I just signed this off, okay, sure, fine, whatever, if you're lucky enough to have like a team on different shifts and preceptors, communication and collaboration is super important. Everybody has to understand the mission and be on the same page and have the same standard of education. You know, if you're on first shift and you're not quite Sally level where you're mildly traumatizing people, but you're like we need to get this, and you're like really going hard, and then your second shift person's like yeah, no, we talked about it for like five minutes while everyone was you know, they were eating lunch, so they weren't really listening it's you're not adequately training your team. That's where whomsoever is is helping you on these other shifts like you need to have maybe a weekly sit down with them. You're like, hey, how's it going? Is anybody struggling? Is there anything I can give you or do for you? Do you need me to help show up? You know is is. Are you having issues communicating with someone that you're training? You know either they're not listening or you're listening, or you're not explaining it in a way that they can understand, because that happens. You might be trying really hard, but you're not phrasing it the right way. I come across this with my youngest kid. She's very literal minded. I have to spell everything out for her because otherwise she doesn't get it. There's no boundaries in place and her brain just goes into oh my gosh, what if? So, yeah, covering all three shifts. That's your responsibility.

Speaker 2:

Now, if you have pushback, if you have issues, that is where you go to your leadership. You know, unless you're a fancy educator who can write people up which I don't know if there is one but that's when you take it to management and say, hey, you know, I'm really trying to communicate with this person. I feel like I've tapped out all of my resources. Can we talk I need some help, and that's OK. That's what a good leader is supposed to be there for. But again, you know, you sign up for the job. You got to do the job, and this is one of those. Learn from my mistakes because, yeah, baby educator, yeah, yeah, I didn't do it. And, and trust me, now I'm like if I had a time machine, I'd go back and do better.

Speaker 1:

No, I think that's good. It's such a such a perfect segue into the next area that I really wanted to dive into, which is elevating the educator. You know great trainers, as your well, aren't just skill, but they also inspire. You know, and they're, they're there to help. You know, people grow and others grow, and, of course, educators also. Educators need educators, right. So I think this is going to be a very interesting segue into this next section, so I'm definitely excited to learn more about what do you think are, what do you believe are, the traits that define a powerful and effective SPD trainer. That's a loaded question.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, you know you can take someone who is aces at their job, like they could quote you every competency with their eyes closed. Whatever you throw them into an educator position and they might not be a perfect fit. They have, you know. I feel like first off, educators need to be patient. You know it's again teachers in my kids' elementary school. You have to understand that, like maybe someone's coming in and they're having a rough day and you're like hey, we got to do this training and they grumble at you and stuff like it might really not be you.

Speaker 2:

And you're like, ok, hey, take a minute. You know, let's get in a headspace. And like I'm here to help you. And, and you know, if you have someone who you show them and they've walked through it and they've demonstrated and they're doing great, and you check on them and you're like what are you doing? And they're like, what do you mean? Let's go over this again.

Speaker 2:

Patience, very, very important. Also a willingness to adapt and try to be creative. And this is where where resources and assistance and training for educators can be really important, because a lot of times you're making it up as you go and you're doing your best, but there's so much out into the world that you're like, hey, what if I did this training in a slightly different way? What if I invited somebody to come in and be? You know, vanna White's my Pat Sajak, and we do it together, and I say that because I did that with one of my old coworkers and if she watches this she'll see it and laugh.

Speaker 2:

But knowing that what you're doing will change all the time, you know, we know sterile processing in and of itself is a very fluid space and that's why we, you know, get to the point with our older generations. This is the way we've always done it. It's not that way the same ever, and education is the same way you know. So your patience, you got to be adaptable. You have to be constantly learning yourself.

Speaker 2:

When I got the educator position, my one boss looked at me and was like you need to be the expert in everything. And I was like, okay, I think he was kind of serious, kind of joking, but I took it seriously because I saw the point was I am now the person who is responsible for making sure everybody in this space knows what they're doing. So I really need to be on my A game and it was a life and death, you know, sometimes literally, but yeah. So being a lifelong learner, even when you don't feel like it, it can be tough, but you have to do well at your job and explain things for your team.

Speaker 1:

That's really good. Lifelong learner, adaptable or flexible, that's. I mean that was that was excellent. I mean that right there, I'm going to be going back to listen to that section, cause that was that was really good. I really appreciate what you were adding and you could tell that that was coming from a place of experience. It just wasn't. You know a sticky note on your computer that you're like, let me touch this Like you could really. I could really feel that from your heart that you were talking about something that you really lived, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, and I appreciate that. And sometimes the experiences that we go through help to give us the substance that's going to help someone. And I kind of like thinking about the songs. Right, there's a different parts to a song and then there's a cadence and a rhythm that goes to every song, or a harmony or a melody, and so even in your career there's a cadence that should be there, or a harmony or a melody. You have the instrumental, but then you have the overlay of the lyrics. So just kind of seeing how the lyrics the song you were just singing, let me say, came from your heart, it came from real experience. Someone once said years ago what comes from the heart reaches the heart, and so I'm very confident that that gem right there, that crunchy nugget that was just handed out, is going to really help someone. So I really appreciate that.

Speaker 2:

That's what I'm here for, just I'm here to help.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome, appreciate it. So how do you motivate hesitant team members to share their knowledge and to train others?

Speaker 2:

This is a good one, because I had somebody who she, she knew it, she knew her stuff, you know she could tell you exactly how to reprocess all the policies and procedures. But you know, she really wasn't very confident speaking up, and part of it, you know, is is I'm not the educator. Why should I have to? I don't have to, unless somehow it gets written into the job descriptions or your end of year evaluation. You don't have to. However, I have confidence that you have something of value to share with this team and I think you're going to be amazing.

Speaker 2:

One is like be their hype man. You know, tell them how much you, you know you believe in them and you know you're confident in them. Sit down and be like hey, you know, know, this is a thing you really know about like what can I do to help you to be able to stand up at the next end service and talk about five minutes? And I'll stand right next to you. I'll stand here and and be by your side physically, because sometimes that's what people need, but talk it out.

Speaker 2:

All right, what resources you know? Do you want to make a presentation? I will help you with your presentation. I will edit it, I will help you find pictures and make the flow like fully going in on this person and just trying to boost them up. And then, if they go through with it you know, hopefully afterwards, when they're like like calming down and they're a little sweaty and they're a little shaky and like, oh my gosh, I can't believe I did that. But like you were amazing, you did great. Can we do it again? Get them while they're still in that mindset and just keep the momentum. You know, if you know, if it's anything like the first time I had to give a speech, I almost threw up. You know, if that happens, give them some space. I think it's so important that that not only are you educating them, but you are supporting them. You know an educator is, I don't know. I feel like I mommed a lot of my folks.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, that's really good. I love that because the support is so important. Any role I've ever done, that I've. You know, whether I was successful and maybe I didn't feel I was successful, there was still always someone there who was guiding through the process like you're mentioning, just encouraging them on the length of time and also even practicing. You know, going through a tray if you're going to do a demo or an in-service, or you know practicing with them until they get comfortable.

Speaker 1:

And you know it reminds me of another thing that Karen Cherry mentioned to me at that time was whatever you want to do. If you want to be an educator, she told me, bill, find ways to educate now. If you want to be a manager, find something that you can manage now. If you want to be a teacher, like, find areas in your life that you can teach. And it reminds me of this motivational speaker Les Brown and he always talks about it's better to be prepared for an opportunity than to have that opportunity and not be prepared. You're sharpening your skills, whether it's in education, maybe it's in assembly, whatever you're passionate about sterile processing or anything.

Speaker 1:

If you happen to press the play button, get this far and you're like I'm not into sterile processing, but it's really intriguing in this podcast, like whatever you are trying to do or whatever are trying to do or whatever you want to do, like find opportunities, you know, in life. It's kind of funny. I'm gonna tell you this is funny. So real quick, sorry, but sometimes you know, I mean I was interviewing for like a leadership role and they're like well, do you have any managers experience? And at this time I didn't. But my daughter was like 12 years old, right.

Speaker 1:

And I've been married for like 15 years. So I was like well, I got experience, I'm a husband, I'm like I'm a dad, right. They're like they're like oh, that's not relatable.

Speaker 1:

I'm like what are you talking about? Like that's so relatable, Right, Super, yeah. So it was funny. Like I was like, okay, yeah, I have experience, this is my experience, so but I really I love what I felt when you were sharing that, which was like I've been there before. When you have that person that is right there for you and then afterwards stabilizes you like you did, saying like man, you did so great you. You, as the young people today would say, you did that, you did that.

Speaker 2:

Is that what they're saying?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they're like you did that. Yeah, they're like you did that, like you know, if you like, if you made a nice shirt, or you you know you shot a week, a game winning shot.

Speaker 1:

They would be like you did that, you did that. So it's like telling that employee like you know what you did, that you took that, you did that in service or you covered that training or you stepped in and did this. I just want to add that, just because I feel like those are some things that came to my mind. Yeah, and then have you seen someone grow more confidence because they became a trainer? Have you had any experience with that or you might want to share?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So back where I worked, we at one point had four new employees start in like the same month and obviously I can't clone myself and be four places at once and they all had different levels of experience. You also, it was a smaller department, so to have four new people crowded into like the prep and pack area where there's only four workstations, it's not really conducive to the whole flow of the department keeping up with the ORs, things like that. So you know, my leadership and I we sat down and we're like okay, like we need preceptors, we need to try to, you know, figure out who currently in our team like we're confident in and then approach them and say, hey, like are you willing to give this a shot? You know it's. We're not going to make people do it. You know we would have figured it out somehow, but thankfully we had a couple of people who were like you know what, let me, let me give it a try.

Speaker 2:

You know I'm ready to take that step a little outside my comfort zone. And so we set up like a schedule with them and the people and like rotating them, so they were in different areas, so we didn't have a lot of overlap of people learning, you know, just again, to keep up the instrument flow. And they did so great. It makes my heart so happy and I hope they watch. I'm going to send them this. Actually, there's no hoping I'm going to be like hey, I talked about you. But after the first one they were like I'll do this again, I'll totally do this again, or like maybe they had talked to each other and like, hey, you know, I don't really want to precept and that and.

Speaker 2:

And then I watched it turn into little moments in the department when we didn't have new folks precepts, little conversations, and it wasn't like a like hey, you're doing that wrong. It's like oh, hey, like did you know this? You know the IFU says whatever, whatever. Hey, did you know? Like, did you ever think about doing this this way? You know it's a little shorter or it's. You know I noticed you're struggling and and I thought that was so great that it became a subconscious positive growth in them and I haven't been there in a while. But I sincerely hope that they're keeping it up because actually I might just text them later and ask, because they were great and I was so happy that they felt confident and comfortable to keep doing it.

Speaker 1:

No, that's phenomenal because you're really talking about through the questions and the dialogue today we're really talking about such a key word in regards to sterilization station, which I say is an empowerment podcast for sterile processing, and that's the word. Empower right Is to give someone the authority or something the authority to do something. And so, even in the questions we're discussing, and just the great experience and knowledge that you're bringing to all of us, is that you're empowering us through training, how to be a trainer, skills to have, and sharing some personal experiences that you've had with those that you've been privileged to mentor and you've been able to empower right. In order for someone to be empowered, they must first choose that they want to be empowered. They have to empower themselves right Through the willingness to learn, the willingness to glean, the willingness to believe that, yes, I can be this educator, or yes, I can be a preceptor, or yes, I can be maybe even like a big brother in school.

Speaker 1:

Right, that's just helping someone as they're becoming a sterile processor. Just helping someone to change their mindset and that's something that I really value with the Sterilization Station podcast is just helping to shift the focus. Like, our mind is like a tree and the thoughts are fruit, and so if we're constantly eating on that bitter and bad fruit that we can't do something, I'll never be successful. I don't think I can do it like this person. I don't think I can stand up in front of here for you know, five minutes, right, that's 60 times five, right, that's like. That's like 3000 seconds, right. Like can I?

Speaker 2:

do it over 300 seconds.

Speaker 1:

So it's like just you're empowering someone today. You're really. There's someone who's going to listen to this podcast, who's going to be on the edge of the fence and wanting to do something, and now they're going to look back and say, man, vanessa Frank, she really encouraged me, and this is what it's all about. Right Is to empower, and so that's kind of leads me into our next segment, which is kind of related to empowerment, and that is I'd like to talk about adapting training for each learner, and so I just wanted to dig into this question have you seen generational or personality differences in how people learn SPD skills?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yes, I definitely have. I mean, generally, generationally, you'll find that older folks are not necessarily as tech savvy. So, hey, watch this training video. They might struggle to pull up the training video because that's not how they grew up. You know, we all grew up with technology right there in our faces. Well, I still was in that like weird middle ground Younger generation it's right there, it's second nature to them. That like weird middle ground younger generation it's right there, it's second nature to them.

Speaker 2:

You know, being able to look at, you know, maybe you've got someone who's two years from retirement. You know they, they care, but they're slowing down, their joints hurt and they're like, man, I just let's, just let's get through this. Versus you got somebody you know they're 23 and they're hyped up and they're like, hey, there's this podcast, there's. Hey, there's this podcast, there's this webinar, there's this thing, and you've got these polar opposites and you have to try to bring them together in an in-service to teach them the same thing. And that's where that adaptability and creativity come in, because you might have to have like sidebar conversations with one of them like, hey, I know this wasn't your specific modality of education.

Speaker 2:

Do you have questions? Do you want me to cover something again with you. You know, yeah, again, that's where the you know, the leadership support so that you have the time for it Because, let's be real, editors can be very busy folks. But but yes, there is. There is a gap that you know. As time goes on, that specific gap may close and I'm sure another one will come on with the people entering the industry in the next 20, 30, 40 years, that people our age are going to be two years from retirement and we're going to be like man, like you got holograms up on the wall, like I can't touch that. It's not real Space age stuff.

Speaker 1:

No, I think that's so. That's so true though, right, I mean, there's so many. You've got the baby boomers, you've got the X, I, z generation, you've got those who are like old school. That would be like I've never identified. What is mental health? What is bipolar? What is you? Just toughing through it, right. Suck it up Buttercup yeah, yeah, toughened through it right. Suck it up butter yeah, yeah, suck it up right, exactly. And now it's more like you know you have the newer generation, where it's very creative minds, can use, can create apps, create processes through technology and and how to get the one generation to see the struggles of another generation. And then how you're. You know you look at sterile processing departments. They've got 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, the year edge gap. Right, I'm 60 about to retire, I'm 20 just getting in the field. How do we? How do we mesh? How do we learn, how do? But you know, this is the we're living in, the days where people are working with their hand up holding a cell phone, right, I'm?

Speaker 1:

looking at the cell phone, and so just how do we use the technology? At the same time, but also value that different people do come from different generations and that has a great impact even on how you learn, and so, anyways, it's a really interesting conversation. I do actually plan on having an episode in the future about generational intelligence and the impact it has on sterile processing and surgical services, and so stay tuned, y'all Sterilization station is just getting rolling on the track, so it's going to be a good one.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, Thank you. Yeah, I'm looking forward to having that conversation as well, and so I just want to kind of keep the conversation rolling here. I was wondering what's your approach to integrating visual, verbal and hands-on tools into training?

Speaker 2:

So that one, depending on what you're trying to train on, could be difficult. If you've got a flexible scope, that just came in, it's a new model and you're like, okay, well, here's your hands-on and visual and we're going to cover all the bases. If it's a new kind of one of those facility policies that you know isn't, it's like, hey, you know, we have this memorandum that came down and we have to train your people, but there's nothing due to review said memorandum and some people might go through it and be like, why am I learning this? It's not important to me, you know. It's like, okay, well, you need to explain the importance of not just, hey, this is from high up, outside of our department and mandatory, but it's like, this is how it impacts you.

Speaker 2:

You know we had, we had an instance where one of we were having construction near our department and so the emergency fire exit moved and not everybody was made aware. And then we had a drill and half the team way over here on the other side of construction, like I got, got around the other teams at the new location and it was one of those. You know, not everybody got through the memo or they really, you know. So finding that way to kind of make sure everybody, depending on how they figure it, you might have to walk them to it. Hey, here's your, here's your hands on this is where we go in case our department's on fire, not over here. You got to go here and just, and it's it's so important to make sure people aren't just, I'm just going to sign my name off, so she leaves me alone. That's not the point, because I'll come back, especially if I find out that we have this training and then tomorrow you didn't do what we just covered I'm going to come find you for sure.

Speaker 1:

That's for sure. No, that's for sure, absolutely. I think that's really important. I mean the visuals for learning, as well as different tools that exist. Ones can see exactly what the workstation and the processes look like. And having that clinical educator or that sterile processing educator that's taking them through their you know, getting them signed off, making sure they're the yearly competencies, or by annually if that's what your facility does. But I think that's really great. So now I'd like to transition into talking about turning learners into leaders. So what's a sign that someone's ready to train others? Like, how do you really know? Like for yourself, like, how do you know? What are some signs that someone's really ready to train others?

Speaker 2:

One of the what I feel is semi obvious is is if they're already approaching someone and gently correcting them and you're like hey, you know, you just did that. Do you want to have a conversation about like doing it more consistently and like with new people? Like they might be like not for me, like I just saw this and it bothered me. Cool, thanks for letting me know. But they might be like oh, you know what? That sounds great. I would really like to try to you know, branch out. I want to grow professionally. I want to help new people Like maybe they're one of your uh, be positive. We all know there's some sour grapes in sterile processing, so maybe it's one of those folks who's like I'm going to go against the current and be positive and they want to get their hands on those new folks ASAP so that they can make them positive, positive. Little bundles too Great, that's awesome. Like let's, let's sign you up, let's get you your resources and talk about how the flow would go, and yeah.

Speaker 1:

No, I think that's good. It's almost like you're visualizing in the department or you're observing, and I think that's what's so interesting about the ear is, like you have the outer ear, which is like you know the flesh, you have the middle ear and then you have the inner ear Right, and so sometimes just listening from your soul, I guess you will say, or listening from your heart, and you hear that certain sound, or you like you're hearing and seeing, is really in the brain, right, the nerves are registering it. And so when you're seeing the demonstration of someone who's has that care and is willing to impart, and then you look at the measure of impact, right, like you think about sterile processing, a lot of times when I tell different friends about measure, you think about a depth gauge. You know you've got our synthese, a few synthese trays. You pull the depth gauge out and they're measuring right to no doubt know how far or whatever the purpose is.

Speaker 1:

And so, as an educator who you're measuring to see, like man, this person really had an impact when they did that, or they showed someone, they trained someone, and it was really. The impact was measured by the person that received it, how well it was received and how well it was taken over. And they might even come to you and say you know, bill stepped in and he showed me this and he really he's got something there. He really was able to teach me in a way. So I think it's just kind of using your senses right your feel, your smell, your touch, your hear, your seeing, your tasting to determine like, okay, this person might be a really good fit for that role. So I don't know. These are some thoughts that came to my mind, just thought I would add it to the conversation.

Speaker 2:

It's a good dialogue.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Thank you, how would you guide someone stepping into that first time trainer role?

Speaker 2:

Yes, not in the way that I was thrust into my educator role, which is sink or swim. You don't want to scare them off. It is, it can totally, it can absolutely be an intimidating thing, especially, you know, bring up that generational thing. Maybe you're younger, that your person is younger than the person that they are going to be training, and so there's potentially some sort of this part. They're only 22. I'm like you know there might be something there and so your, your potential trainer, might be a little nervous.

Speaker 2:

And it goes back to support and building confidence and making sure that they have everything they need. They should not be in the middle of showing somebody how to assemble a set and be like, oh my gosh, I don't have a count sheet, whether you're paper or electronic tracking or whatever. Or hey, I'm going to show them how to reprocess this flexible endoscope. Where's the competency or the SOP or whatever documentation of the steps you have? And then they look, they feel embarrassed because they're not prepared and they're supposed to be prepared. That's why they're in this role. And then they come back to you and they're like I don't want to do it anymore. You know, it's just, it just soured me.

Speaker 2:

So, making sure you think ahead. You know you sit there and go OK, this is how their day is going to go. This is, within reason, what they're going to cover. You know you might have anomalies, sterile processing things happen, but for the most part you should have everything that they are going to need ready for them, whether it's physically, on paper, whether it's electronically available, and if they call you, you pick up the phone and you go to them. Without question they're like hey, I'm struggling to connect here. I feel like I'm not really getting a response. I feel like I'm talking to a wall or they're ignoring me because they did it this way at their old place. But we do it this way Like can you come help? That's how you do it. You have to be their person, be their support, to help launch them into that position.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's excellent. Those are really excellent points. Supporting people in the role and being available and willing to drop things to support them, that's great. Being available and willing to drop things to support them, that's great. I've definitely experienced that with coaches and leaders that have mentored me just being accessible. How do you build a culture where ongoing training is expected and respected?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to tell you right now that is an uphill battle. It's getting better. We're slow and steady, getting better in general, thankfully to social media and all these platforms, including yours, that are pushing education and the importance of that culture shift. But unfortunately, like in individual scenarios at hospitals, you might have a tough team. You might have where your leader is not that ideal leader. Maybe they're just they're in that chair because they're retiring soon, or they micromanage, or they don't actually care, or they don't know any. They got hired because they have business experience or something like you know. So then there's you struggling to get your team to understand how important this is and your leader is like over over there talking to somebody else, metaphoricallyically speaking. I think it really starts with an attitude change across the board. A lot of people you know they come into sterile processing and either they've planned for it, which means they do actually care about the education, like they went to school, they studied for it. This is like this is my goal. Or you've got people who they're like I need a job, I come in, you know. Or you've got people who they're like I need a job, I come in, you know. And I, unfortunately, I hear people. They're like you know the glorified dishwasher thing. They're like, yeah, I just clean stuff all day, you know, and they it's almost like they don't value themselves enough to value the education of their job. And that's tough as one person to really fight against it. It's so hard, it can be very discouraging and I mean I think that's why people get burned out. But I think that's really where it starts is coming in and just saying look, look, guys, I'm your new educator. This is how I feel about education and this is why you know we unfortunately there's a recent story of a professional soccer player who is now career ruined for life because his implants got flashed. Was that an education problem? Was that a staffing problem? Was it a facility? There are so many little rabbit holes to go down but say it's an education problem. You know some folks, especially newer folks, who don't know they're like I can flash anything. It just goes in the pan. I know he can and this is why and just imparting how serious it really can be I know people like to use the phrase like it can be your family member on the table.

Speaker 2:

Some people don't have great relationships with their family members and they're like all right, cool, figure out. You know what motivates them. If they're only there for their eight hours to make money, that's going to be really hard. You got to get to know them and figure out why they care, Otherwise they're going to be that person who's playing with their phone under the table during your in-service or napping, or just straight up refusing to come Because I've had that happen too where people are like I'm not coming and trying to get your leadership like sit down with your leadership, like this is important and this is why Bring the research there's news articles out there. Be like give them a stack, like do you want to be the next name on this list of someone responsible for this? You know what can you? Can you tell it's a pet peeve I could definitely feel it.

Speaker 1:

I can definitely I can.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, it's for for sure and it really is. It really shows the measure of a person's passion. You know, when you are coming to in services and you're not valuing the time, and you're when someone is doing that and they have those characteristics, it it's. A lot of people have lost their passion and lost their why. But I think it's our job as educators also to you know, grab the defib paddles or whatever and shock them back awake, right to realizing how significant what we do is. And if this isn't, if you don't have that passion, it might be. You know, this might not be the industry for you, and that's OK. It's. We as leaders have to find those tough conversations Right. Sometimes education is not about instruments, but it's. It's also educating about passion and really just rediscovering that person's why.

Speaker 2:

So I like to. Also one of the things that I like to do I coordinate with the OR to have my people watch surgeries in the room. Not everyone was cool with that. I had one person faint, another person almost faint and that's okay, like if they say no because it freaks them out or they're like, hey, I'll watch this type of surgery but not this one. Cool.

Speaker 2:

But they get to see the flip side of a person on the table. They're in the most vulnerable state they will ever be in in their entire life. They're unconscious and being cut open and there's a person at the head of the table keeping them alive. And they also can see how important it is for sterile processing in the OR collaboration because there's, you know, five plus people in that room all circulating to make sure it goes well in the allotted amount of time and then out the door, clean the room, next one in. They have to have what they need when they need it, in the proper state so that that person on the table isn't potentially harmed. So that was one of my. You know I love watching surgery. You throw me in, I'll watch anything. But that was definitely something that I think helped boost up that. Why for some people like they cared, but they, they would come back from the oar and they're like, oh my gosh, they're like the things I saw. I'm like there you go I just love the passion.

Speaker 1:

I love meeting passionate people and listening to them. It it makes it's like the you know, the, the mesmerize or the hypnosis. I'm just like because I just I love that and it's like the you know the, the mesmerize or the hypnosis. I'm just like cause I just I love that and it's like I feel drawn to people like that, because I really feel like I'm very passionate. I've been told by a few people that it comes through my episodes, but, um, meeting someone like yourself who's very passionate, I think is is really encouraging and inspiring, and and I know that you've been someone that's been very supportive of the podcast, which I'm very grateful for. So we just have a few more questions. I want to try to squeeze all the oil out of this olive. So, while we're here.

Speaker 2:

All right, let's do it.

Speaker 1:

And you may have touched a little bit on it, but I wanted to kind of still bring it back up Is it? What's one actionable change a leader can make tomorrow to support this culture that we've been discussing?

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, Sit down with your OR schedule, your staffing schedule and your educator and say we're doing training Tuesdays at this time. Everyone's there. First shift is this time. Second shift is this time. Communicate how important it is as a leader, you know, because your educator is in this weird limbo where they're.

Speaker 2:

It's funny. Their job is to tell everybody what to do, but in a leadership type of way they can't tell everybody what to do. You know what I mean. They can't order people like you have to show what you have to like. What are you going to do? Write me up, you're going to fire me. They don't have the authority. So that is the leader's job is to back them up and say no, no, no, we have time.

Speaker 2:

You know the OR has their own. Maybe they have an in-service day every week and they get a late start. Well, guess what? That's your in-service day. Now too, maybe you can work with your OR and do a collaborative in-service day. Maybe bring in a vendor rep for a new loaner trade that maybe they don't know what they're doing with either. Everybody's just winging it. But like first thing I would say as a leader, back up your, your educator, sit down with them and say what do you need? How can I help you? Maybe there's no, a lot of times there's no budget for education, so they're just. If it's free, it's on it's game. But.

Speaker 1:

But your team would you know, maybe they need something, maybe they need books. I think that's great. I think everything you touched on today is so important and I've always felt that you know, as leaders, one of the most important things you can ever do is I don't even want to say, take the time. I rather would say, make the time to sit down with them and, you know, observing what they do, being part of what they're doing, not from a judgment perspective or even looking out from that perspective, but just to show your support, whether it's, you know, sometimes picking a case card with them or supporting them through that, or like, say, you have an educational team, like you said, just as a manager, just being present, sometimes asking what you're working on, and just showing that you care. When you're pulling up the chair, you've kept time on your schedule open for you to observe and be there, so that just really means a lot. If you could give just one message to SBD educators and leaders everywhere, what would it be?

Speaker 2:

One message I would say keep it up. There may be days where you are so frustrated and just downtrodden and it might be people, it might be processes, it might be you ran out of time that day and you wanted to do whatever You're doing. Great, you have support, whether you know it or not. The internet is a wonderful, beautiful place at times and there are people floating around. You know LinkedIn, facebook, whatever who will absolutely help. So don't be discouraged. If you need help, ask for it. I'm help. You can find me anywhere. I'm all over the place.

Speaker 1:

That's great. Appreciate that last question, the response that you gave. And, more importantly, I just really want to say thank you, vanessa, for joining us and sharing your heart for training and empowerment. You know you reminded us that great training creates more than confidence, but it builds confidence, connection and long term commitment. And to our listeners, whether you're, whether you're being trained or training someone else, know that you are shaping the future of health care, one tray, one tech, one teachable moment at a time. Don't miss our next episode, where we will explore the O in mentor opportunity and how to grow your career from where you are to where you're meant to be. And so I just want to take a second, real quick, just to.

Speaker 1:

We do have a few sponsors that are supporting the sterilization station. So if you are out there and you are looking for an excellent educational learning tool, whether it be for your SPD department or for help with studying or your certification exams, you need the world of surgical instruments. This 498-page hardback textbook covers all you need to know about surgical instruments, from frequently asked questions, testing and inspection, repair, sharpness testing and much more. So go to wwwinstrumentlearningcom and you can use the code BRBOOK to get a 20% discount and to complement the textbook, check out the instrument coaching cards, which are 165 color-coded flashcards with all the most commonly used surgical instruments. Order those today by using the discount code BRCards. Or, better yet, use the code BRSet to order the book and card bundle and get the best deal.

Speaker 1:

And also, we want to inform you of MedTech College in Hayward, california. Are you looking for a rewarding career in healthcare that doesn't require years of medical school? Medtech College in Hayward, California, offers a comprehensive sterile processing program that prepares you for a vital role in patient safety. So as a sterile processing technician, you'll be on the front lines of infection control, ensuring that surgical instruments and medical equipment are properly sterilized and ready for use. With hands-on training, expert instructors and job placement assistance, medtech College gives you the skills and confidence to step into a high-demand field with great career potential.

Speaker 1:

Classes are enrolling now, so don't wait. Take the first step towards your career today. You can reach MedTech at MedTechCollegeHaywardcom or you can call them directly at 510-432 for more information. So we do want to thank Vanessa Frank once again for being here today in this conversation about training and the Mentor Miniseries and once again, stay tuned next week for our next episode on Explore the O in Mentor, which is Opportunity, how to Grow your career from where you are to where you are meant to be. So, once again, thank you, vanessa, for coming today and we really appreciate you for participating in today's session.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate you inviting me. This was fun.

Speaker 1:

This was real. I really enjoyed this conversation as well, so thank you everyone for tuning in, and we'll see you again next time.