Top 10 Mistakes New Sterile Processing Techs Make !

If you’re new to sterile processing, the hardest part isn’t caring, it’s carrying the mental load while everything moves fast. I’m Bill, your sterile processing success coach, and I walk through the top 10 mistakes new sterile processing technicians make when pressure, speed, and uncertainty collide. The goal is simple: protect patients while you build real confidence in SPD, instrument reprocessing, and day-to-day workflow.

We start where mistakes often begin: rushing through decontamination when case carts stack up and turnover feels urgent. From there, we get practical about IFUs (instructions for use), enzymatic detergent timing, and why “it looks clean” is never the same as verified clean. I also break down common assembly problems like tray organization, learning instrument names, and how to build a consistent inspection flow that the OR can trust.

Then we tackle the hidden risks that show up later in the process: labeling and scanning errors, ignoring wet packs or packaging issues, and staying quiet when something seems wrong. We talk sterilization cycles and why understanding steam versus low-temperature sterilization reduces fear and improves decision-making. We close with documentation discipline and the mindset shift that keeps you steady: process focus over performance pressure.

If you know a new tech who feels behind, share this with them. Subscribe for more real-world sterile processing guidance, and if it helped, leave a review and tell me which mistake you’re working on next.

Transcript

Why New Techs Feel Overwhelmed

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the sterilization station. This is that podcast where sterile processing professionals come to build skill, confidence, and consistency in one of the most critical roles in healthcare. I am your uh host for this podcast. My name is Bill. I am the sterile processing success coach. And if you are new to sterile processing, I already know what your first few weeks have already probably felt like. You're trying to remember every step, think you're trying to decode some of these abbreviations and not slow anyone down all while you're thinking, everyone else looks like they know what they're doing, except me. Or maybe you're thinking, I don't want to be the reason someone gets delayed. Or maybe it's, I hope I'm not missing something important. Or maybe even in your mind you're thinking, why does everyone move so fast while I'm still thinking, I'm still pondering? You know, that combination of pressure, speed, and uncertainty is exactly where mistakes can start to happen. So today we're breaking down the top 10 mistakes new sterile processing professionals make and how to fix them fast while also talking about what's really going on underneath those mistakes. So let's think about one mistake that might be coming into a new sterile processing technician is rushing through decontamination, right? You feel behind the moment you walk in. Dirty case carts are stacking up. Someone says, we're running behind, and suddenly you're trying to move faster than your training level support. So what really happens is you start to rush, not because you don't care, but because you're trying to keep up and not be seen as slow, right? This is what happens when you're in decontamination and you're trying to begin to progress, but you're having some challenges because you are trying to manage your thought process of I'm a new technician, I got a lot of things I have to get to get through. And what do I really do as I'm going through this process? So it's something that we all go through as we're growing. As I always say, we keep going, we keep growing in sterile processing. So please don't let that hinder you from continuing to grow in the area of work. And so as we think about rushing through decontamination, sometimes you're gonna feel like you walk in, there's work everywhere, there's dirty case carts are stacking up. Someone says, man, we're running behind, and suddenly you're trying to move faster than you know that you can. And that's where mistakes happen. So we do not want to rush. We want to be careful because we do care, right? We know that we are the first step in the cleaning process. We want to make sure those instruments are coming to the clean side clean with no bile burden, no tissue, no bone. So it doesn't slow the process of getting those instruments turned around fast. And so you're back there scrubbing instruments while you're thinking about the next trade coming in already. And then you miss a bile burden and a huge joint because you're just not paying attention. And so the way we fix this is we have to slow down, right? Slow is not failure, it is the foundation. The repeatable routine, same order, same inspection flow, same wrench discipline. Remember, most new techs aren't too slow, they are too mentally overloaded. So we just want to make sure we're slowing things down because at the end of this, who who matters? The patient, right? And so mistake number two, a new technician can make in serile processing is not following those IFUs close enough. So we want to make sure that we're following the IFUs. Remember, IFUs stands for instruction for use. Now sometimes they can feel overwhelming, long documents, small print, different for every device, and you start to think, how am I supposed to remember all of this, right? But that's why you just have to take the time to read the SOPs, read the IFUs, and follow the instructions. So you won't start relying on your memory or what someone told you. Always remember you have your other technicians there as resources that you can ask questions to, and they are definitely there to support you in your quest to be the best of the best. Remember, you're told just soak it for a few minutes, right? But the IFU requires precise timing and brushing steps. Most of your enzymatic detergents will have a uh the soak time standard, I believe, is around five minutes. Just follow the IFUs as well as the manufacturer's IFUs for your enzymatic detergents. So remember, you're not supposed to memorize IFUs, you're supposed to use them every time. Remember? And new techs, just a little bit of encouragement. New techs don't fail because they're careless, they fail because they're overloaded. So make sure you're asking for help when needed and communicating with your superiors as well as your team members in decontamination. Mistake number three that new techs will make is assuming it looks clean means it is clean. Okay, you always want to verify. You want to do a good job. So when something looks clean, you mentally check it off to move faster and reduce backlog anxiety. You want to visually inspect because you're worried about trays piling up behind you. Don't worry about speed in the beginning. It's more about efficiency, doing it right, making sure you're not missing anything. Slow inspection, beats rework every single time. Make sure you're going through and you're checking these instruments. And sterile processing, confidence before verification is where mistakes hide. Mistake number four is poor instrument organization during assembly. You're trying to remember layouts while also learning names of instruments you've never seen before. Meanwhile, someone says, We need that ASAP as soon as possible. So that pressure pushes you into a guessing instead of structuring. Make sure you're structuring your trays in a way that makes sense to you as well as to the surgical team. Whatever I sell on my tray is always try to think about what are they going to use first in this in this tray, making sure that's something that's readily accessible and available. And a lot of times, even on your count sheets, they will put certain things in certain locations because there are more use. In other words, in the C-section set, there always typically is a uh maybe like a wrapped, uh, like a towel on the top with um liner on the top of some instruments that are gonna be needed right away. A retractor, maybe a ribbon retractor, a Richardson retractor, your knife handle, your coker, or something like that. Just they're gonna be used right away. Uh use common sense when making uh your structuring your trays, just makes sense. Now remember that you are not expected to be fast, but you are expected to be accurate. No one trusts speed without consistency. So make sure there's a consistency, but you are taking your time. Stake number five that texts to make when they're new installed processing is labeling errors, not paying attention to what you're labeling. Now, I do know with a lot of the tracking systems now they are printing out a lot of materials, stickers and and stuff like that, which makes it a lot easier. If you are in an older facility where you don't have a tracking system or a label a zebra printer, you do want to make sure you're labeling it correctly. You're juggling scanning systems, train names, and cycle numbers while someone waiting for you to finish. Example, wrong set gets scanned or mislabeled under pressure. So make sure you're pausing because pausing equals protection. Make sure you're verifying as you're going through your scanning process. And remember the last 10 seconds of your task matter more than the first 10 minutes. So it's really important to follow through. Mistake number six in sterile processing as a new tech is ignoring web packs or packaging issues. You see the problem, but you also see the workload. So the internal conflict starts. If I stop this, I'm slowing everything down. Make sure that we are always putting quality over quantity and that we are making sure that we're everything, remember, everything we do is for the patient. We're we're we're we are called to protect the patient because they're they're expecting sterile instruments and a great experience, a great patient outcome when they come to the hospital. And although we are not really praised too much, we still have such a great responsibility in healthcare. So you let a slightly damp pack go through because you feel pressure. You don't want to do that. You want to stop and make sure everything is sterile and dry. And if it's damp, if it's wet, we must reprocess it over again. And we must learn what caused that. Was it was the tray, was the load uh improperly loaded? Was your asculat pans, your genesis pins on the bottom, or your wrap sets on the second level, and where your pill packs on top? I mean, you are you are not responsible for speed, but you are responsible for safety. You are not blocking workflow. Remember, you are protecting it. So make sure we're loading these these loads correctly. And if you ever have a question, always ask. Just take a second, ask someone to verify that can always protect you in the at the end. And so mistake number seven is not speaking up when something seems wrong. New grad pain point. This is one of the biggest ones. You don't want to over, you don't want to look in experience. You want to slow people down. You want to be that new person. You don't, you, you're, you're worried about being that new person that's asking too many questions. So you stay quiet, right? You don't want to be like that. You you notice something off in the tray. Don't hesitate, say something. Fix it fast because that way you can continue the process of providing these instruments to the OR, which in an essence is saving lives and giving people more time back with their family, which is so important. Remember, your uncertainty is a reason to speak up, not to stay silent. Silence might feel safe, but in sterile processing, silence is a risk. We want to make sure we have sterile conscience and that we are expressing when things are not the way they should be in the department. This is something also to remember in sterile processing. Mistake number eight is not understanding the sterilization cycles. It's really important when you're new to try to really grasp the science behind sterile processing. There's a lot of people in the industry, mentors, educators, subject matter experts that can help you to grow in your skill set. If you're lacking skills, make sure you're reaching out to get those because they can help you. Remember, you're memorized, you're not memorizing sets, but you're understanding why they exist. You know, it might feel like a foreign language in the beginning, but you want to understand the science behind sterilization. You maybe you can't explain why low temperature versus theme matters. You just know that that's what they told me, right? But you want to change it. You want to learn the difference between the different types of sterilities and modalities because it'll help you to better understand why we are selecting different instruments to use different sterilization modalities, which is really important. Remember, understanding removes fear and memorization creates stress because you're trying to remember do I really understand this? Versus when you understand something, it's almost it comes second nature because you have an understanding of what that really means. And the mistake number nine that a new tech can struggle with is their poor documentation habits, right? Good documentation practices or GDP is something that we all in sterile processing must learn. And that's really a part of the preceptorship and the competencies of when you're being trained that your uh your preceptors are expressing and showing you how to do this, and then you can demonstrate it through the competency checks. So when you're trying to keep up with physical tasks and digital systems at the same time, so documentation becomes rushed or delayed. So you can forget a scan or even enter in later incorrectly because you're multitasking mentally and physically. So just remember that in sterile processing. And so stop treating documentation as extra work. It is the work. As we always say in sterile processing, if it wasn't documented, it never happened, right? So if it's not documented, it did not happen. Mistake number 10, new text can make, is letting anxiety control performance. This is a quiet one that no one talks about, right? You're constantly comparing, they're faster than me. I should know this by now. Everyone is watching me. These are some of the thoughts we have, right? When we're dealing with anxiety in our new role. And that internal pressure will build anxiety, and that anxiety, in essence, is going to create mistakes, right? So you start rushing just to avoid feeling behind, right? But how you can fix that is shift from performance pressure to process focus, right? Ask yourself, did I follow the steps correctly? Don't ask yourself, did I do it fast enough, right? So speed is what others see. Process is what will keep our patients safe. And so these are 10 things that can affect new sterile processing technicians. So as we close out this episode, if you're a new sterile processing technician listening right now, I want you to understand something. Most people don't say it out loud. Feeling overwhelmed does not mean you are underqualified, right? It means you are in the learning phase of a high responsibility profession. Every tech you admire once stood exactly where you are, right? They felt they were slower than others. They felt unsure of themselves. They felt trying not to make mistakes, or they were quietly wondering if they belong in sterile processing, right? The difference is not talent. It's time, repetition, and consistency. So give yourself space to grow in this role. Don't rush growth. Don't pressure your growth. Let growth unhappen. Let it become real growth as you're growing in sterile processing. Well, that's it for today at Sterilization Station. If this episode resonated with you, share it with the new tech or someone just starting out in sterile processing because no one should have to navigate this process by themselves or should feel that they are alone, right? I am your sterile processing success coach, and I'll be back with real world guidance to help you build confidence, confidency, and career longevity in sterile processing. Until next time, stay starved, stay sharp, stay consistent, and stay safe. If you're a new grad and you are looking for coaching, please go to sterilizationstation.org, click the get coaching tab, and I can help you create your externship success roadmap as well as coaching you into new roles, helping you to land a successful career in sterile processing. May God bless you.