Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast
Welcome to "Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast, the podcast dedicated to elevating the field of sterile processing and surgical services! In an industry where precision and care intersect, we believe that knowledge is power. Our mission is to empower, encourage, and motivate every professional engaged in the transformative world of healthcare.
Join us each week as we delve into enlightening discussions that shine a light on best practices, emerging innovations, and the critical role sterile processing plays in patient safety. Whether you're a seasoned expert or just starting your journey, our panels and expert guests will provide invaluable insights through engaging conversations and real-world stories.
From the nuances of instrument handling to the latest in sterilization techniques, we cover it all. Expect thought-provoking interviews, educational segments, and motivating content designed to inspire you to elevate your craft. Together, let’s foster a community that champions excellence in surgical services and celebrates the unsung heroes of healthcare.
Tune in to where expertise meets passion, and every episode empowers you to make a difference in the operating room and beyond.
Sterilization Station: A Sterile Processing Empowerment Podcast
The New Bridge Effect: Transforming Lives Through Sterile Processing Education
Three sterile processing professionals share their journeys through New Bridge Cleveland's program and how it transformed their careers and lives. Their diverse backgrounds and experiences highlight the opportunities in this crucial healthcare field, from challenging externships to long-term career aspirations.
• Participants include Charmaine (25), currently working in sterile processing; Bobby (45), who transitioned from 23 years in warehouses; and Jaden, preparing for externship
• Personal motivations ranged from advancing healthcare education to setting an example for family members
• All praised New Bridge's comprehensive education, hands-on training, and exceptional mentorship from instructors who remain accessible after graduation
• Externship experiences varied dramatically - from structured, supportive learning to being "thrown to the wolves"
• Key skills for success include technical knowledge, attention to detail, and interpersonal skills for working with diverse colleagues
• Most view sterile processing as a stepping stone to other healthcare roles like surgical tech or education
• When describing their journeys in one word: "humbling," "fast-paced," and "motivation"
Keep going, get that certification, and don't give up!
Okay, welcome back to another episode of the Sterilization Station podcast, where we empower, inspire, encourage those in sterile processing. I'm your host, bill Rochelle, and today we are back at New Bridge, cleveland, where we will be interviewing some students who have went through the program or have went through externship and some maybe I'm not quite sure are actually in the field. So we'll go ahead and do some introductions and then we'll go ahead and get started. So if y'all want to introduce yourself a little bit, tell us about yourself and that'd be great.
Speaker 2:Hi, my name is Charmaine. I'm a sterile processor, I'm 25 years old and I'm currently in the field.
Speaker 1:Nice to meet you.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 3:Nice to meet you.
Speaker 4:Thank you, my name is Bobby Tolliver, currently a sterile processor, and I'm 45 years old.
Speaker 1:Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. My name is Jaden Brown I. You could each take a second to share a little bit about what motivated you to join the sterile processing program.
Speaker 2:What motivated me is I wanted to just like further my education in the medical field. I just wanted to further my education in the medical field. I don't know, I didn't know.
Speaker 1:How did you hear about the program?
Speaker 2:My friend's mom.
Speaker 1:Okay, your friend's mom told you about it, nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Cool, that's great. How about you? You said your name was Bobby, correct?
Speaker 3:Yeah, bobby, I got a little back story. I was actually 43 years old when I discovered sterile processing. I've been working in warehouses for like 23 years. After college. I've been working in warehouses for like 23 years. After college I've been working in warehouses. I had a son. I got a son who was struggling with finding his way, and I didn't graduate college, but he didn't graduate high school at the time. So he was like if you graduate, I'll graduate. So I came to Discover New Bridge and that was kind of like the best thing that happened to me, because it actually motivated my son to do things too. Newbridge is a viable was a viable asset. It came at the right time.
Speaker 1:That's really great. Wow, that's, that's powerful. That's really powerful. I remember taking the class one time for uh trying to get into a surgical tech program and, um and um, there there was two people that had the last name and they looked like. So they looked like uh, like they were twins, and it was the dad he took a algebra in in college because he wanted his son to pass, so he took it with him. That's really cool, though. And then who's the third person? I forgot the name of the third person.
Speaker 4:I forgot the name of the third person, jaden Jaden. I've always liked the healthcare field. I realized growing up that I don't like hands-on, like dealing with patients, but I always loved the atmosphere and the experience I get when I go to the hospitals. I found sterile processing online through a friend and found New Bridge, nice. That's great, also as a sidebar my niece was the first.
Speaker 3:She's in the first class that Mr Nate had in New Bridge.
Speaker 1:Wow, amazing. How would you, how would you all describe your experience in the program Like when you went through the program?
Speaker 2:It was a great experience for me.
Speaker 3:I would come back. I love New Bridge. New Bridge is so valuable to not only like me, but like the youth, as you can see, like different age groups, this is something you can have with you to last forever. You don't have to. You can take this everywhere you go. That's what makes it more valuable.
Speaker 1:That's really good what about you, jayden? What was your experience so far in the program or when you went to the program?
Speaker 5:this is probably one of the best programs I've been to it's a good pace, very informative and it's very convenient and can help anybody out in any situation. That's great.
Speaker 1:What would y'all say was the most challenging part of the coursework, or the labs?
Speaker 2:I think for me it was like learning all the instruments.
Speaker 3:Well, as a past graduate, I think that the hardest part was really was really like living up to Ms Renee's expectations, because she put so much on us to teach us to go out and to actually do it and to try to fulfill that expectation. That was the hardest part and it's still currently today, because we represent New Bridge every day.
Speaker 4:Great, that's really great, I definitely will say, just being able to keep down all the information you're getting, because we're only here for 10 weeks, so being able to maintain it and apply it and getting ready to go to your externship.
Speaker 1:This is great. This is great to be able to recap some of your experiences. This is really great.
Speaker 3:What's your program, mr Knight and the New bridge staff still very accessible. Yes, even after and I've been out the program I graduated a year ago, year and a half ago they still very accessible.
Speaker 1:That's really great. Yeah, most, most educators I've met there. They're more than just program instructors. They're more like mentors career mentors to help you to you know, stay focused, or to give you insight or just to be a sounding board in tough times. So that's really great that you guys have a Miss Renee. She's pretty awesome. Yes, she is. How did the program prepare you for the externship? How did the program prepare you?
Speaker 3:for the externship. So my externship was at South Point Hospital, at Cleveland Clinic, but we also had Ms Tracy to teach us to go out to the field, because not only is it like we learn it still processing, but you learn it like a job, so you learn how to be at work and everything. They got us together and it was very helpful. My transition to my externship was so smooth because it's like I went from my big sister to my mom, because my preceptor, ms Shelby, she had 27 years experience and she could hear your mistakes without even seeing. It was great.
Speaker 2:It was great yeah, I feel like um, the program helped me with my externship, like because it was hands-on, like doing the stuff hands-on, it really made me that's good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the externships are so important. What about you, jade?
Speaker 5:um, so I actually go to my externship next week, so I haven't started yet, but I'm pretty good sound like you got some people right there.
Speaker 1:You can pick their brain. That's great, that's really great. What was your externship like and how did it compare to the classroom lab experience?
Speaker 2:the externship. Well, on my first day they really threw me out to the wolves. So I was real like I think they just felt like, since I went to school, that they could just go me and decode by myself. So I just feel like it was just. It was rough at first but I got it now.
Speaker 1:That's really good.
Speaker 3:So my externship experience was was. I had a great externship experience and it got me so ready to work at cleveland clinic now where I work. But but it was not only was it like more of a education experience. I wasn't an employee, I was a student and so everything I did I was taught before I did it. If that makes sense. Yeah, that sounds good. I never had that. I apologize to my classmate for having that experience. I'm sorry for that. I didn't have that experience Like. I never got a chance to like. Everything I did was hands-on. She was right there and she never. Let me forget that. I was a student Never.
Speaker 3:And that was the best part about your externship the experience of being a student who's actually in the field. But you're a student, so you can't be scared to make mistakes not that you want to make them, but you can't be scared to make them because in the next 90 days this will be your. You will be applying for this job. So you want to know what not to do. You want to know what to do. You know, get ready for that, those scary three letters JCO, the J code. You know. They teach you everything and it was. It was great. My experience was was top notch, if I may say so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, mayo Clinic's, cleveland Clinic is like one of the best, best hospitals I've seen through social media seem like they have a lot of strong team collaboration and just good training, so that's really a good, great place to uh be a part of it it depends on which site you go to, because some is busier than others.
Speaker 3:I was fortunate to a smaller site that wasn't as busy and nice, you know so everything I got to.
Speaker 3:When it was my week for deco, I got. I got the experience. She wasn't pulled away. When it's my my turn to pick cases, she was there. She didn't get to, she wasn't pulled away. But it was my turn to run a sterilizer, do trays, learn how to do tests. Everything was hands-on. Plus, like I said, if she had to do something, she never was far away. She could hear me, Like she could hear you. I promise a true story. I was in decode and it was. We had a scope and I did the leak test. But you know, you got to do the air leak test. You got to do the scope.
Speaker 3:You got to do a drive, then you got to do it with the pump and I did it with the pump, but you got to do it twice, so I didn't go to 160. She's like I didn't hear you do that. I said what you didn't take it down to 160.
Speaker 5:I didn't hear you.
Speaker 3:You didn't take it down. I didn't hear you Don't skip. So I never learned to skip a step. So I take that with me right now. Hey, I don't skip nothing. This is important. And she even more than Ms Renee showing us and teaching us and making sure we knew that I had went straight into my externship. It was just like the same carry-on, it was like a bridge, and so I just went straight into the field.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really great. That's really great. So I just want to move into personal growth and impact. So how has this program changed you, personally or professionally?
Speaker 4:I definitely think. Coming in I had a different mindset about my career and what I wanted to do. It definitely aligned me. But she has changed the way I think about certain stuff and how I go into certain situations.
Speaker 1:That's really good. That's really good. What about you, the one in the middle?
Speaker 3:Man, like I said, the program. It changed my outlook on overall education because my whole dream is for one day they can have a whole school full of 21-year-olds, 25-year-olds, 17, 18-year-olds who just graduated high school, who don't have money to go to college, who don't want to go to college but they want to do something. Education, you know, like school, wasn't for everybody. I was fortunate enough to go to college and New Bridge, so I understand that. But I know that this program is so valuable and if it was a way we could trigger it into the high schools. You know, to a trade, school Trade is missing.
Speaker 2:If I was a 17-year-old senior right now my mom and dad probably would have been here in the 12th grade.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying. That's good. What do y'all feel are some skills that will help you succeed long-term in this career? What are some skills needed?
Speaker 2:Long-term skills in this field.
Speaker 1:Any skills that you think you must have in self-processing?
Speaker 3:yeah, the biggest skill that I learned at New Bridge as a parent the biggest it was, you know, miss Tracy. Miss Tracy had a portion of her class where she taught you how to look at yourself, be humble and deal with different people. I don't eat pork, for example, right, so we might have a potluck one day and you might make greens. You might make your greens with turkey meat and you might make his with pork. So I have to deal with that type of stuff. Just make an example. Kids important. So I have to deal with that type of stuff. Just make an example. Not that it's important, but she taught me how to be more into other people's feelings, if that makes sense, and that's something you need forever.
Speaker 4:Definitely one thing I'm always perfect. That's really good.
Speaker 1:Can you turn the camera? I want to see you. I haven't even seen you yet. I'm trying to see the third person, jaden. Where's Jaden at? I just want to see him. I want to say hi, it's kind of hard to get on the camera. It's okay, it's all right. It's all right. This is great. There we go. It's almost there. We're almost there. I can see your shoulder, I can see your shoulder. I can see your shoulder. I can see your shoulder. No, it's all good, it's all good. So what advice would you all give to new students considering this type of program? Sterile processing.
Speaker 2:Uh, advice I'll give them is like to study and just really like pay attention to the teacher, because Ms Renee really got good knowledge on everything in this field.
Speaker 3:My advice to any student, anybody period, is remember your why. Remember why you started. Remember that because different people come from different places and they don't come from the same place you come from. Their feelings are different, the things they do is different. Remember your why.
Speaker 5:Never forget your why. My advice is don't ask questions. Ask Amelia, if you can. Whatever, you don't have to ask her because she has an answer for it or a story for it.
Speaker 1:That's great. That's really great. Uh, do you all see sterile processing as a stepping stone or as a long-term career for you?
Speaker 2:I feel like it's a stepping stone for me, so I want to further my education. I actually got to watch a surgery and I actually want to further my education.
Speaker 4:I actually got to watch a surgery and I actually want to be.
Speaker 2:yeah, I want to be a surgical technician. Yeah yeah, I actually got to watch a surgery, so I want to like become a scrub tech or something like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, that's good. They're getting a bigger school and they're adding the surgical tech program to it. Once I get a little bit of experience and start processing process of the field, I do want to report it to.
Speaker 1:Great, that's really good, you can do it. I believe in you, man, you got it.
Speaker 3:I think it's more of a stepping stone for me because I would like ultimately to be an educator, preceptor, try to be a preceptor, educator. Like I said, I wish, like my goal is to actually be a recruiter for New Bridge and go to the schools. I can probably get like 50 kids a session.
Speaker 1:There you go. That's really great. It's a lot of positive energy on this call in this in this session. Here you guys have a lot of motivation to want to continue further in your education, and that's that's really really great. That's really great. I love what someone said about knowing your's. That's really really great. That's really great. I love what someone said about knowing your why, too. That's, that's super important. Like understanding what we do, not just being someone that pushes a button but really understands what happens when that button is pushed, is actually really really good. That's awesome. What keeps you all motivated to continue in SPD?
Speaker 2:Patients, like patients, need clean and sterile instruments, so that will keep me going.
Speaker 3:What keeps me going to SPD is knowing that at the end of the week I did something gratifying and I made an honest pay, and it's going to take care of my kids and my grandchildren, and it's the fact of knowing I belong somewhere and somebody needed me. That's also a big feeling, a great feeling, a gratifying feeling.
Speaker 1:As a man, that's great, that's really great.
Speaker 5:I feel like just knowing that we contributed to saving a patient or helping out in any way for a patient's care journey in the hospital. It feels good. Yeah, that's great, that's really good.
Speaker 1:That, or helping out in any way for a patient's care journey in the hospital, is it feels good? Yeah, that's great, that's really good, that's wonderful. So we've got some closing questions here. So what is being a part of the sterile processing community mean to you?
Speaker 3:Okay To me it means a lot because to a lot of people who don't know what sterile processing is, they look up and they see you in your scrubs and see pictures of you and your hair and that and your beard coming People who don't understand. It's something that's in their face. It's so important that they can even be a part of. We can take this as licensed anywhere. It's international.
Speaker 5:Yeah, I feel like this is one of the most overlooked fields and, second in hand, the most important to it. So just knowing that for myself, that I have an important role Great, that's really good.
Speaker 1:And if you guys could all describe your journey in one word or phrase, what would it be?
Speaker 3:What about that?
Speaker 1:That was Bobby. Okay, what about you? Uh, would it be Humbling? What about that was Bobby? Yes, sir, okay, what about you, jaden, it's fast, fast-paced, fast-paced, okay. And then to end it over there with the young lady, what's one word or phrase for you? Motivation, motivation, fast pace, humble, that's great. Now, this has been great. I really appreciate it. Is there any parting words you'd like to give to the listeners who's tuning in? Maybe it's someone who's a student, maybe it's an extern, maybe they're new to the profession. What's some word of advice you have for them today?
Speaker 3:Keep going, get that certification Keep that certification.
Speaker 1:You heard it right there. Keep going, get that certification and don't give up Once again. This is Sterilization Station. We are coming from New Bridge, cleveland, where they are helping people to create opportunities to enter into sterile processing, also empowering and encouraging them. People are coming to this program and they're bettering themselves, which, in turn, is bettering those around them. So thank you very much for tuning in and we'll see you on the next episode and keep your eye on New Bridge, because they're doing some big things over there. Have a great day.
