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
How HSPA Memberships/Chapters Fuel Careers In Sterile Processing
Welcome back to the sterilization station. This is your host, Bill Rochelle. We have another great episode today. Very excited about today's episode. And behind every successful sterile processing professional is a network of peers who support, educate, and empower them. And today we have a great topic. We're going to be diving into the heart of that network, discussing HSPA chapters and memberships and who better to bring back to the show than Arlene, aka Diva Bush, where we'll be diving into this great, great conversation. But before we get this episode going, we know it's sterile processing week. We're celebrating all those in the industry who've doing a great job providing the great positive patient outcomes to all of our patients and the units that we serve. And so, Arlene, what do you what do you you have anything you want to say during sterile processing week to the community of sterile processing?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, sir. One, thank you for having me back on the show. Two, it is sterile processing week as we come to a close. I just want to take the opportunity to thank everybody who participated in sterile processing week. I hope everybody enjoyed sterile processing week. I hope it was a week full of education, hands-on demonstrations, tons of food, some really good games. I saw some really good games that were played uh at facilities around the globe that uh I might have to steal the concept from. But I just I hope everybody enjoyed sterile processing week in that they felt appreciated and know that you're not appreciated just this week, but every day of the year for doing what you do and your part in patient safety. We are a pivotal part of our surgical services team. And it starts with us down in the trenches, right? Absolutely. For everything that you do to keep our patients safe. You know, sterile processing is a melting pot of technicians, right? The amount of years and knowledge that we have in our sterile processing departments with people assembling instrumentation, slopes, reels, no, a gamut of instrumentation that goes through our departments every single day. And we need skilled, certified technicians to work that task out. So there's no light amount of thank you can come out of this week, honestly. Um, I hope that our our partners in care, our other departments that we service showed some thank yous and some love as well. Uh, but most importantly, I hope that we all understand we play a pivotal part in patient care. So thank you all for what you do out there in the highways and byways of sterile processing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's amazing. I'm really glad that you were mentioning that because sterile processing is so important. And even just for me, I mean, I I went through a major transition in my life right when I met sterile processing. I just kind of got back on track, troubled youth, you could say. And uh sterile processing was just right there and it was uh welcoming into the community, and the more I got involved and and and learned about it, it was like there's so much so many great things, and then meeting so many people, and and then you know, you get to meet like all the different units that we serve. And it's like in I remember I was working at Children's Hospital in Oakland, there was this frame on the wall, it was a uh it had a picture of a of like a heart, like a a drawing, uh, you know, the not the shape of a heart, but the cardiac heart, a real human heart. And it said, um, sterile processing is the heart of the hospital that pumps sterile blood to all the departments. And you know, that was it just was so true. Like we're we're the ones that's delivering supplies or you know, picking up intubation boxes from ER. We're going and bringing those. I remember renting those crash cards all over the hospital, right? They needed they needed me to replace it. I was going by pharmacy, getting a drug drawer, you know, and so there's so many different units. Um and it was just a it's just amazing. So I too uh want to celebrate all those out there, you know, who are providing you know A plus care, you know, working, maybe you're working uh as a liaison, you're touching base with the service ladies in the OR, you're making sure that you know you're building new count sheets, you're building new trays for doctors, you're spending time and even in surgery to understand what the doctor needs. It's like everything that you do doesn't go go unseen, and we really appreciate it. So really, really glad to have you back on the show. And um just want to thank you for those words you said about sterile processing week.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it's a pleasure to be back. And I chuckled a little bit inside when you said intubation boxes. I hadn't thought about an intubation box in a minute, but I certainly have done my share of them. I certainly have. But yeah, that was kind of like a letter from home when you talked about intubation boxes. I was like, man, we're still.
SPEAKER_01:We used to, yeah. I haven't seen one in a long time, but we uh we used But that's relevant. Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. So whether you're new to the field or you're a seasoned, you know, S-Vity leader, this episode is guaranteed to show you why we belong uh to something bigger than yourself, or how you can belong to something bigger than yourself. It can be one of the most valuable steps in your you know in your career. And just to get us started, I'd love to hear a little bit of your story of how you got first got involved with HSBA.
SPEAKER_02:I was starting out in sterile processing. I mean, I guess I wasn't starting out. I had been in the industry for a little while. Back then there wasn't a lot of attention to certification. You could work in the department, not be certified. Um, and that was socially acceptable. There were people who were certified, and it didn't wasn't like a requirement. You could still, you know, just kind of do your hours and stuff. Um, but eventually it be kind of became, you know, hey, we're we're looking at taking a new direction. We would really like the entire team to be certified. And I'm talking like early 2000s. This was communication. Um, and that was really the push. The rest of the department was getting certified. Why don't I? Um, and that was really the push to get certified, and how I had heard about at that time ISHAM, now HSPA, and everyone and I didn't even know there was another certification body. I have I only heard about ISHAM because everyone at my hospital was Isham certified. So that's how what brought me to Isham, now HSPA. I had the uh opportunity to participate in a subject matter expert group. Well that just that just threw me right over the top. I was hooked from that point on. And I did subject matter expert groups for about seven years, and that's how I got involved in Chess PA. Was sitting on those uh certification groups for our certification test, briefwriting test questions, researching test questions, finding them and making it a researchable question, which really broadened my horizons, not only for Chess PA, the association, and kind of the inner workings of how that worked, but more just geared for my profession or our profession, wanting to get more involved. I found out at that time we had more committees, and I was like, what? I think so. How does one get on these committees? Where do we find out about the committees? I mean, like, it wasn't in our magazine, didn't have a call for volunteers type of thing. It wasn't on our website often. You kind of had to catch it when you caught it. So that kind of broadened my horizons and made me, you know, made my passion grow more for the association and other aspects too, as well as Amy. But that's really kind of how I started in sterile processing. It was kind of I knew I wanted to be a surge tech, but I needed to go learn my instruments, is what my manager told me.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:And I was like, okay, because she happened to be over like transport and sterile processing, and she was a surge tech. She was like, Oh, you could so do this. And I was like, Okay, I'll I'll do it. Five years she had me in sterile processing, learning instruments. Five years. She kept telling me, you're not ready to take your certification test, you're not ready. And I applaud her. My very first sterile processing manager, her name was Jerry. She had been a surgical tech for 28 years, and Jerry was like, You're not ready. You don't know the process, you can't speak it. And I was like, Speak it. What are you talking about? I can speak it. She was like, Prove it, say less. And that's how my my path to leadership started.
SPEAKER_01:So that's amazing.
SPEAKER_02:It was really an interesting twist of fate. It was kind of like a dare, I bet you you can't. I bet you I can.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, right, that's right.
SPEAKER_02:Jerry was Jerry was pivotal in my career. If I crossed her path today, I'd probably kiss her feet, her open-toed shoe feet.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. Right for sure. She definitely involved.
SPEAKER_02:In healthcare, huh? Did you wear open-toed shoes? Okay.
SPEAKER_01:That's great though. No, it's really great to hear a little bit of your background. And no doubt when you got to be uh got to go into surgical technology, you were probably, you know, A plus with your instruments because you had spent so much time in sterile processing.
SPEAKER_02:I could take take something apart, put it back together, I could assemble something sterile, I could do all kinds of stuff because I knew how to disassemble it. But I mean it didn't that wasn't kind of how that just kind of grew my my passion for the association. So then I had to have different committees and then the board of directors, and then ultimately president.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's so great.
SPEAKER_02:I mean it's a huge honor to serve our association in this capacity and in the board of directors. Not only that, but um, you know, participate in committees like Amy, uh, that are um international. And then we have the opportunity as president to serve um the World Federation. That's a huge privilege as well. So it's been very rewarding my professional career. And I promise you, my family thinks that I just kind of hang out at the hospital.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, my grandma's my grandma thinks I'm a doctor, so I understand.
SPEAKER_02:My kids do too. My my kids are totally my mom's a doctor. I was like, I wish, I wish I could go to school if I wanted to be a doctor.
SPEAKER_01:And I I refuse to be one of those sterile processing technicians who walks around the hospital with a white coat on. Uh I refuse to be that one. I've actually thought about getting a white coat though and having like a big stitch in the back that says like sterilization stations. You should.
SPEAKER_02:Or I mean it doesn't even have to be like a lab coat, it can be like the short lab coat. Yeah, exactly. There are definitely healthcare systems where you have to wear lab coats while you're out and about in the facility.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yep.
SPEAKER_02:And that's like general practice while you are outside of a sterile um sterile processing area, you'll wear a lab coat. Sure. Well, I mean, a lot of our processes are facility-based, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yep.
SPEAKER_02:Some facilities still don't make technicians wear um jackets. Yeah, warm-up jackets. Which some facilities have been doing it for years. It's funny when you hear stories from travelers, right? Where you're they're at one place to become accustomed to that one place and they go somewhere else and they're like, I can't work here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Because their standard is different.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. We used to have the disposable jackets when I worked for a healthcare fake healthcare organization.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so yeah, if I've had disposable launder, you name it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. Now, quick question. Um, for someone brand new to sterile processing, why should they consider joining um well, the most valuable resource for our association, right, is our membership.
SPEAKER_02:So being on uh HSPA provides the members with a broad range of certifications, continuum education, as well as supporting um advocacy for our profession. So it it just seems right that you would want to join the association in the profession that you're choosing to step into, right? Yeah. It could only better yourself as well as your career, whether it be through networking or attending uh HSPA event, whether it be national conference or maybe uh a podcast or other chapter events. You know, we have quite a bit of chapters now. So that's a great way for somebody who's entering the sterile processing profession to kind of get out there and get their feet wet is to attend a chapter meeting wherever they may be in whatever state they may be in. There's probably a chapter in that state.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. No, that's great. And I know that HSPA offers so many resources, you know, from education to certification. But what are some um what are some of the most valuable benefits members get access to?
SPEAKER_02:Well, beyond education and certifications, other benefits for members are digital access to current and archived issues of the process. That's our magazine, access to member-only services on our website, participation in uh online HSPA network community forum, discounts on HSPA publications. Sorry, like if you were going to buy a textbook or take another certification, becoming a member, and when I mean becoming a member means paying the$10 up past your certification or renewal fee, uh that makes you a member. So you have the ability to vote in our elections, opportunities to participate in leadership roles, opportunities to put participate in committees, reduced registration fees for conference, free webinars now. That's new this year, where if you are an HSPA member, lesson plans that you see in the process or online are now free to all members. Previously there were uh$15. That was something new that we felt like, you know, to kind of beef up our membership was to offer some free lesson plans. And then we have the digital uh platform. Our publication is uh Process This, which is emailed to all of our members as well.
SPEAKER_01:Great, that's really great. How has your membership personally impacted your career and your professional growth?
SPEAKER_02:Being a member of the association, uh, it's broadened my horizons on many levels, honestly, like I had stated before. Um, being on the subject matter expert groups, it really allowed me to hone my own skills uh as a sterile processing technician and in all previous aspects of my career, a technician, a lead, a supervisor, a manager, an educator, a system educator. It's allowed me to connect with my chapter. I didn't connect with my chapter until I became certified here in the state of Florida way, way back when. And I'm talking like early 2000s, and it's allowed me to enter a network of colleagues, right? Professional colleagues that I get to call on. You know, if I need a question answered and somebody else isn't answering, and I've got to go down the phone tree of people that I can reach out to and be like, hey, I just read this. Am I overthinking this process? I'm just curious what you think. You ever encountered this before in your career? Um, because there's some value in walking through some real experiences in sterile processing before you kind of step out there on your own, you know, maybe returning the department to service. Maybe you're doing large healthcare construction, and what does that look like? There's value in kind of walking through doing those types of projects because there's little things you didn't think about. Like I didn't know I needed a power pack for a sterilizer that's hot wired into the wall. Or I didn't know I needed hot and cold water lines into a sonic that never had hot and cold water lines before.
SPEAKER_01:Taking from experience there, huh?
SPEAKER_02:That comes in and mixes in the chamber. I was like, what? Thought it was plug and play. That's not plug and play. So it's there's a lot of value in walking through things like that. That you just, if you don't have never had that experience, you probably want to phone a friend real quick.
SPEAKER_01:That's really good. That's really good. And then beyond education and certifications, what are some of the benefits members might overlook, like networking, mentoring, or local opportunities?
SPEAKER_02:I think then uh members forget that we're HSPA. We don't know that you want to um participate until you tell us you want to participate. So don't be afraid to call the office and say, you know, I feel like I could do a lot of good on the certification council and see, are they looking for volunteers? Or maybe you want to participate in the subject matter expert groups and you want to inquire about how to do that. Or maybe you're traveling and you're in another state and you're not in your home state and you want to attend a chapter meeting. Reach out to HSPA and they'll hook you up with your closest chapter. At least give you a contact person or email address to reach out to the chapter in that area and say, hey, I'm gonna be in this area from this time to this time. Do you have any education days local? That's a great way to get connected in a new area that you're gonna be in for a little while. Reach out to some other healthcare systems. You know, a chapter meeting is normally where you find out about opportunities like job shadowing. If hospitals are open to doing job shadowing, it's normally at a chapter meeting through a chit-chat conversation. Oh, I didn't realize that a healthcare system offered job shadowing. Well, that's a good little tidbit of information to know in case somebody else reaches out to the chapter and says, Hey, I'm really thinking about joining sterile processing. Do you know somewhere I could go and observe or go to a tour? That's a good tidbit to know where to send somebody or in a direction that says that these people, this healthcare system allows this. Maybe they'll allow you to come by in shadow for eight hours. That's great for to mold a new mind for somebody who's not sure if they want to be in sterile processing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's really good. I think I was listening to a podcast with yourself and Damian Berg. Berg, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, sir. Berg.
SPEAKER_01:I yeah, I like that and how um Casey ca Koznowski was mentioning, or one of the one of you all were mentioning how sometimes it's good to, you know, bring a guest with you to a local chapter event. And so there's, you know, me mentoring students, I mentor a lot of students. So I'm gonna I I thought to myself, I'm gonna bring us I'm gonna bring a student next time I go to one of the meetings and let them expose them to that environment. So that was really cool to hear that.
SPEAKER_02:You know I always uh hang the flyers up in my classroom because even if they're not local, I even hang those flyers up too. Because what if the staff are traveling one weekend and they want to attend uh an education day and it's in another part of the state? So we do that too. I I like bringing students even though they can't really use the CE's. Uh-huh. They they get way more value out of that chapter day because they're one, they're shocked that there's other people who want to be here on a Saturday and hang out with us at the chapter. But we're pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. No, it's good to make those connections. That's really important. You never know.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like it is uh we did it for a long time. Like if you bring a friend, you can bring a friend for free type of thing. Uh manager can bring an employee for free. We had so I have to like, you know, during COVID, because we were doing virtuals with the remote platform, but it was it was an interesting time during COVID for chapters. But I gotta admit, the association did reach out, was like, what can we do to help? Uh they were pretty pretty good with that, and they allowed us to do this remote platform, which was huge. Because without that, I don't think we'd have been able to sustain as many chapters as we have, or and and we're growing, literally growing by the month. People keep putting in chapters, which is pretty amazing, honestly. That you know, we are we're growing in multiple ways. There's so many moving parts of HSPA, but our chapters are really coming out of the woodwork, honestly.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's right. I think there's like what over 60, 70 chapters, right?
SPEAKER_02:There's uh 68 right now. We just approved a couple of provisional chapters, but yeah, we are. I mean, I'm telling you, conference will probably be closer to 75 is that's good.
SPEAKER_01:That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:I might take that at a challenge. We'd be at like 75 by conference.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, absolutely. No, that's great. It's a great trend. It's a great transition point into our next question about local chapters. Um, you know, they're often the heartbeat of the HSPA experience. And what role do you feel local chapters play in connecting the sterile processing professionals?
SPEAKER_02:I think a chapter meeting is a great way for local sterile processing professionals to be in a room with like-minded people to kind of come to chapter meetings to get outside education that's off the job, right? I can assure you, I didn't get all my education in sterile processing while at work. I had to kind of reach outside and put in my own due diligence, right? If I wanted to better myself, um and am gaining my certifications. I didn't gain them all at once, but kind of once I got that second one, it was on like, you know, Donkey Kong.
SPEAKER_00:I needed the rest of them.
SPEAKER_02:And it was kind of a challenge with the chapter board. We felt like, how are we gonna continue to do education days when we didn't have all of the certifications? So as a chapter board, we challenged each other. And it started with the CER. We all took the pilot, and it was it was over after that. Within seven, eight months, we all had all four.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:It was a good professional challenge, not only just to say, hey, we could do it, but to kind of show our membership right in the chapter that we are vested in this profession and that we are promoting our profession and we are promoting our members, and we are bringing vendors to our members, and that's why people come.
SPEAKER_01:That's really cool. That's really cool. Can you share an example of how your chapter helped build community or solve a challenge in your workplace?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think one, just wherever we're hosting or the hosting facility is for our chapter, because we have a very large membership, and we ask our membership, if you give us a room, we'll bring in the meeting to you. So we always ask our host, hospital, what are the current challenges you're having in your department right now? What are you seeing? Because we can gear our presentations to that or get our vendors to gear our presentations to that. And that seems to have worked out well for our different uh locations. But two, I think just outside of being in a conference room, our chapter um has volunteered at food banks and soup kitchens. We did uh Toys for Tots at Christmas. We've donated our time as a chapter board at national conference year after year, doing food banks for that and our volunteer events tear every year to stuff bags at conference.
SPEAKER_01:That's really cool. I know I I want to volunteer at a conference because I want to see if I can get a free ticket to the conference. I'll be like, I'll volunteer at a table. Well, we have the scholarships, we have the scholarships, we have the scholarships.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that honestly, that is a great opportunity to lead into that shameless little plug. HSPA has scholarships out right now, I think you have until November 4th to sign up for the foundation scholarships. HSPA Foundation is giving away 12 scholarships. And it's hotel in registration to the conference for the 2026 Baltimore Conference.
SPEAKER_01:Go for it.
SPEAKER_02:And then there are two other vendors who are also offering two additional conference scholarships that include registration and hotel. That's huge for our members. I mean, some of our members really face how are they gonna get to conference, right? This is a great opportunity to get to conference by writing an essay at why you want to go to conference. So that's good. It is totally achievable. And how great is it that the foundation can offer 12 this year?
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's really great.
SPEAKER_02:They're giving back to their members.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's really great. I think that's great investing in the members. And even the fact that we have this whole foundation and HSPA here to service the members is great, and to see that they're the chapters are just in every state race basically is great.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think we hear enough from our foundation board, uh, but they are certainly busy in the background doing what they do best. I always joke and say that'll be where I go next to the foundation, be on the foundation board for a couple of years.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I remember I m I remember it very, very vividly. It was 2014, and I accepted my first like supervisor role over a small sterile processing and had like it was like a three room ambulatory surgery center, and it was like my first role as a lead, kind of overseeing the whole department. And I remember reaching out to I um called in and the person that answered my call was Patty Conker. And uh and I remember I remember calling her all the time and she said to me, She said, You know, Bill, for you being your age, you know, in in in your thirties, like most people are like not humble as you are. And she uh she meant and she just really poured into me and um got to the point to where whenever I would call, she would say, Is this my son? And I would say, Yes, it's me, it's me. And then um and she invested so much in me. And remember when she told me she was retiring. Anyway, she was just a great, great resource and someone that whenever I had a question, I could always call her and I could always like you know ask her a question. And so just know that HSPA is not just there to, you know, for you to turn in your certification CEUs or to get information about the next conference. Like they're they've got a lot of great educational resources there to service you. So I I tapped into it.
SPEAKER_02:I miss Patty. I miss seeing Patty at different meetings and stuff that we would have with the education board. I was happy to hear of her retirement. I was sad to see her go because there's been plenty of times I've called and been like, Patty, I need my CEs from Education Day. And she's like, Look, lady, you called four hours.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And a day before your conference, and I was like, but I thought I had them already. And she was like, so even I, even I couldn't get by Miss Patty, but I'm telling you what, she was a they broke the mold when they made Miss Patty, didn't they?
SPEAKER_01:They sure did, yeah. No, that's so true. That's so true. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:She did wonderfully for the education department.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, she sure did. No, she sure did. She she was she was a great resource, and and uh I know I used to be surprised when Patty answered the phone, and I'd be like, Good morning, ma'am.
SPEAKER_02:How are you? How's the weather up there?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, she was great. She was great. She was the one that I I had built a relationship with. Um, and so it's great to know that Casey's there now, and so he's a great Casey um Amy. Amy, yeah. She's a great, great people, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:John and then Natalie, there's still a bunch of people in education right now. But I mean, and they're busy, like conference planning. So they're I I mean, like the second the conference gets over, education department is running for the next year. And you know, look for presentations comes out pretty quickly after conference. So yeah, I think that a lot of people don't get um a lot of the background, especially for education, because they're in the membership and they don't understand that there's a whole whole department now between like marketing and uh government affairs. I mean, we always had government affairs, but it wasn't like widely talked about.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. No, that's great. That's really great. And then transitioning into like professional growth and leadership, how can involvement in HSPA chapters help members build leadership and professional skills?
SPEAKER_02:Well, different aspects that come into the chapter. We always have at least one to two presentations on leadership that are geared to the technician, the leader, the manager, the director, because we really don't know who's gonna come and show up at our um our education days, right? I mean, we've had the entire IP department come before. Thank God we had an IP talking that day, but it was just on a whim. Somebody said, Hey, I think this would be a good meeting to go to, and the entire infection prevention department, including the department doctor, showed up at our education day. We we were super honored to have them there. And what a privilege, right? That they felt like this was a good opportunity and a good education to attend an infection prevention.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's great. Yeah, no, that's great. And in your experience, what's the connection between being active in an association like HSPA and advancing in your SPD career?
SPEAKER_02:I think that the part to be active in the association, it was never about what I was gonna get out of it for my career. Did it teach me different ways to handle or approach aspects of my career? Certainly. But it also allowed me to collaborate with different people in our profession. And that gave me educational aptitude to deal with different aspects at work because it gave me a different way to think about it. Oh, here they they don't. Did this and over here they did this. And now I kind of have a couple of the different project ways I could go. I could go this way or could go that way. You know, I've seen it done like this. I've seen it done like that. What's the current standard? What's the state and local law in your state? What it does allow you to do? Because some states it's it's you're not allowed to use certain chemicals.
SPEAKER_01:Right. That's really good. I learned a lot. I went to a local chapter meeting, educational day, um, and there were some things mentioned that I thought were really good points, things that I had always wondered, but they were explaining it. It was a few Sterus educators that were there, and it was a really good uh a lot of good takeaways. So I think there's a lot of I was thinking about seeds, right? You go to these educational days, and people are planting educational seeds that you wouldn't, you know, or doing things that you never even thought. If you weren't there, you never would have received that.
SPEAKER_02:You were talking like planting a seed, and I was thinking radial seeds. Oh, okay. You can't you can take the girl out of sterile processing. You can take the sterile processing out of the girl.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. No, that's true. That's true, that's true. Yeah. And um, how do events like conferences and educational sessions help members stay ahead in such a rapidly evolving profession?
SPEAKER_02:So HSBA educational and training sessions provide specialized training and educational opportunities for sterile processing professionals. It's geared to our profession, right? You don't gotta go search for it, you know where it is. This is focus is continual education. It helps not only you, but anybody around you, right? Because aren't we the subject matter experts about what we do? So um having that helps us ensure that our staff are up to date with the current findings or the current IFU or know where to find the current IFU or the current guidance. Right. I mean, our standards have changed a lot in the last 10 years, have they not? I mean, think about 10 years ago, we were processing or weren't processing do it, DNS goes to the degree we are now. 2016, and we changed the standard. 16-ish, we had to start leak testing TE probes. You know how many people don't leak test TE probes though?
SPEAKER_01:I haven't said TE probes so long. But here's your side.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, chapters to help advocate do advocacy for our profession. Uh, the more that we can get the word out about what we do and the importance of what we do can only push our profession forward.
SPEAKER_00:Right, right. That's true.
SPEAKER_02:Seven states.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a lot of a lot of people fighting through the legislature and everything. It's been great. A lot of great work that's went into that.
SPEAKER_02:I forgot about Minnesota just passing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I saw some someone post recently on LinkedIn. That's great.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, we're we are making leaps and bounds with our profession, our required certification, our litigation. I mean, we have, like I said, so many moving parts at HSPA, people wouldn't even know what we got going on in the background. But we don't want to bring it to our members until we know it's a sure thing.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. That's great. And that's what that's what organization organizations like HSPR are there for, right? To watch out for the members from all angles.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I think too, we do great advocacy at HSPA, but I think people forget that we also participate in research for our profession. We did that really big scope research project for boroscoping with Ostend Associates. We've done other research projects with like uh the splash. I mean, we who would have thought we'd be doing research? That's good grandma right there. Who would have thought we would be doing research in sterile processing? I sure didn't when I entered the field. Research was not something that even crossed my mind in sterile processing 15 years ago.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's good. That's really good. That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:But it's HSPA chapters are an instrumental part of our entire sterile processing practice. Honestly. It's a way for our vendors to get in front of our members because there's only so many conferences a year.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's really great. And that's that's a great chance for the vendors to come out, even to show a demo some of the some of their products or answer questions that you haven't had a chance to ask them. So that's really good. I saw a bunch of vendors at the educational day that we just came, we went to recently in uh California. That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I mean, without our vendors, right? Some educational days aren't possible. So it's really our vendors who make education days possible for us. But it's also an avenue for them too to kind of get their product out there, get their research projects out there, because a lot of vendors do research as well, share kind of standard changes. That's a great way to you know segue into a chapter day. Hey, the standard has changed. Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_01:That's good, that's really good. And then thinking about encouragement and next steps, you know, for our listeners who are ready to take that next step. What's the first thing they should do if they want to join a chapter but just don't know where to start?
SPEAKER_02:Reach out to HSPA. Like I said, find out if there is a chapter in your state. We can connect you with your chapter kit contact person. And then if there isn't a chapter in your state, it's a perfect time to start one.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's good. That's really good. That's really great. Well, thank you. And if you had um to give one piece of advice to listeners about making the most of their membership, what would it be?
SPEAKER_02:Get involved, get involved, stay involved, vote in our election. It is part of your membership when you're a member to vote in the election. We have about 25,000 actual members, we have about 67,000 certificate holders, and we don't get a lot of participation in our elections as far as voting goes. So I really hope that that changes because the importance of what we do is still extremely alive and well, right? Yeah, that's good. We um are masters of our craft in sterile processing. There's about 150,000 sterile processing professionals on the entire globe. Wow. Let's think in for a minute. Wow, that's amazing.
SPEAKER_01:That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:That's masters of our craft. So we need to be able to foster that, but we also need to be trained in our replacements.
SPEAKER_01:No, that's really good. That's really good. And the question I have is is um I have a bonus question. I was curious on the relationship between externship students and the local chapters and HSPA. Does does HSPA and the local chapters get involved with helping with externships? Um, or like what what do you what do you see, if not in the future? Do you think they might get more involved with that?
SPEAKER_02:I don't know if HSPA will exclusively chapters, on the other hand, is kind of a different entity where a lot of the chapter education days, you'll hear things like, hey, we offer job shadowing at our facility. Really? I didn't know that. So you never know. A month down the road, somebody calls the chapter board and says, Hey, I have a student looking for an externship. Do you know of anybody that does job shadowing? Matter of fact, I do. Some facility, wasn't that our last education day? Let me reach out to the board. And the board will be like, It's so-and-so's facility. You call them. I'm real. So it was a good way to network. Uh, it's a good way to kind of um obtain information like that that you probably wouldn't get unless you had run across this person on the street and happened to have that type of conversation, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's it's it's very, it's very uh I guess I'll say it this way, you're massaging Bill's heart when you talk about externship because I had a very challenging preceptor, and they really it took me years to realize that they tenderized me towards precepting and externship, and so it's something that I'm I'm very passionate about. So I just had to put it in the this uh episode because it means uh it really means a lot to me to to help as many of these students get the the same experience that a lot of us had. Not everyone does an externship. Um you can you can break into sterile processing without one if you're passionate and have a hunger and you don't take no for an answer, but um, externship is an opportunity to really you get to prove to the facility why when there's an opportunity that you're a great candidate.
SPEAKER_02:We like to refer to those as live auditions. I love that. Can I use that? Can I have permission to use that? Live auditions. In the flesh, you get to come in, we get to see you and see if we like you or not.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, that's good.
SPEAKER_02:But I mean, I think a lot of students too forget that everywhere has a volunteer department.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's true. That's true.
SPEAKER_02:Everywhere has a volunteer department. And if you can't get a paid externship, contemplate volunteering to get your hours.
SPEAKER_01:That's great. That's really good.
SPEAKER_02:It will lead to a position. I promise you it will.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It will.
SPEAKER_01:That's really good. I really appreciate you, you know, for saying that. So this is really great. And you know, today's conversation reminds us that sterile processing is more than just technical work. You know, it's a profession built on community, shared learning, and a passion for excellence. No matter where you are in your journey, being a part of HSPA and your local chapter can help you grow. It helps you connect and lead in ways you might not have imagined. And so a few call to actions here is you know, join and grow. If today's conversation inspired you, don't wait. Find your local HSPA chapter, you know, get involved, attend a meeting, introduce yourself, and start building connections that can grow your career and confidence. So if you do this, I want you to go on LinkedIn. I want you to, you know, to tag me and Arlene, let us know that you know you called in and you want to join an HSPA uh you know chapter and uh and just thinking about connecting with your community, your sterile processing journey doesn't have to be a solo one. Visit myHSPA.org to find a local chapter near you because when professionals connect, the whole field gets stronger. And so if you would if if you got something from this episode, please go online and tag me and Arlene. Let the world know. I listened to the podcast. These are some things that I got from it. Let us know. If you have a chapter meeting, you go to an educational day and it's great. You know, record a quick video. You know, go live and say with your phone, say, I'm here at the chapter meeting and I'm doing this. And let everyone know what's going on. We want to make sure that we are, you know, building on this episode, building on the episode with, you know, from HSPA when they talk about chapters. It's really important. And let's help let's help Arlene meet this goal by the next, the next uh conference, HSPA conference. Let's make sure we hit that number, right? Whatever her goal is, let's help her to get there. And my biggest takeaway from this call today is to make sure that I do my part at the sterilization station during the voting season, the election season, to make sure that we're doing raising awareness. And so I commit that I'm going to next election season, post on social media, make everyone say, hey, who voted? Let's get the votes in anyways. I just want to say we really are really glad to have you here early. I know that you uh always welcome to come to the sterilization station. And do you have any parting words uh before we leave this episode today?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I appreciate having um you having me on. It's just good conversation, right? It's good to have a conversation, but about a really passionate subject.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What a better time to do it than sterile processing week. So once again, happy sterile processing week to everybody out there. Show the shirt, show the search, show the shirts, show the shirt. Yeah, I have the HSPA shirt on. We are sterile processing crowd that served us with a purpose. That was our theme this year. So I hope everybody got their shirts and their sterile processing swag this year. And I hope their uh team just felt thanked, loved, noticed, doted on, just felt appreciated for everything that they do because you can't just walk in off the street anymore and do what we do. So definitely time to applaud what you do in our profession, not just this week, but every day of the year.
SPEAKER_01:That's so true. I always say serile processing week is a great thing, but we want to make sure that we're celebrating serial processing day every day. You know, whether it's I always like to make sure I'm calling things out right when an employee makes a great suggestion, like let everybody know, right? Oh, Arlene, Arlene said we should do this process. And I just I'll go up with someone say, Hey, did you hear what Arlene said? We should try this, you know, just making sure that everyone feels apart. Even you know, even when I have students, I ask the students, hey, if you see something that you feel could benefit the department, like you're a fresh set of eyes, and maybe we're overlooking something, and so always giving compliments, building people up, you know, buying breakfast sometimes randomly, buying donuts or pizza, or just appreciating them every day because sterile processing gets tough, right? We're doing the same thing over and over and over again. Um, and sometimes it it's uh the I guess the monotony of the repetitive thing. So, anyways, really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_02:I feel like it's students that normally find our uh our count sheet errors. This number is not right.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right.
SPEAKER_02:Is it an force up? I think so.
SPEAKER_01:Right, right. That's so true. That's so true. They're they they're they're always saying, Well, this says this, and uh, the number doesn't match on the count sheet.
SPEAKER_02:Is it a forceput in the track or put next to it on your count sheet so they know that you really did know that it was not the one that it calls for in the count sheet, so they can't rate you up.
SPEAKER_01:Right, exactly. And they usually they usually print the count sheet and write the changes and give it to me, and I'm the one that goes through and makes the updates. Yep.
SPEAKER_02:And look, that that process hasn't changed much at all.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but it's still effective. Yep, it still is. That's that's so true. Well, this is great. Well, thank thank you for coming on and stay tuned. Please like, comment, or subscribe. Follow sterilization station, follow us on YouTube, and you can find us on Apple and all the other podcast platforms. Please know this is not Arlene's last time here. I'm gonna find another topic and we're gonna bring her back. I look forward to it. All right, y'all have a great day out there in the world of sterility.
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