The Educator’s Errors - First Training Assignment
By Casey Czarnowski
CCSA Region 1 Director
Serving in the Sterile Processing Department for many years in an area of the country without post-secondary programs for the discipline, I became accustomed to starting new, inexperienced Technicians in Decontamination. I agreed that starting them in the most difficult area would be a trial that they needed to pass. I believed that if a new Technician could handle 3 weeks of Decontam, they would be suitable for the job, and have the worst of the training behind them.
But I was wrong.
The technical nature of the work in Decontam, made harder by demanding physical work and heavy lifting, and exacerbated by trying to explain concepts through the social and communication barrier of Personal Protective Equipment meant a dismal experience for both trainer and learner. While not common, we did lose good people to the hot, heavy conditions of Decontam. Further, it was difficult for even experienced and trained Preceptors to introduce new Technicians to the department while in Decontam, and some refused to train the first week of a new hire’s orientation.
When I accepted the gift of a new position as Educator at a new facility, part of my work was to build up a permanent staff, replacing the Travelling Technicians that had been staffing the department. After my first new hire left after his first day in Decontam, I saw that I needed to try a new way. I changed the order of the orientation period so that Instrument Inspection came first, with Decontamination second. Putting Inspection first allowed the new hire to be at the center of the department, seeing and interacting with all other work areas. Experienced Technicians handle urgent tasks and turnover, leaving the new person to be able to work at her or his own pace. Without the barrier of PPE, new hires can meet their teammates face to face and get to know them in an easy way. For Technicians who are totally new to the work, the Instrument Inspection duty allows them to become familiar with the basics of the tools they will be working with, and they will be more, not less, effective when they begin the work of cleaning the instruments.
By starting the orientation period in a low-impact, centralized duty, we stopped losing new people to the work of Decontamination. By the time they began to train in that duty, staff were familiar with it and ready to jump in and learn. Preceptors were happier to have staff to train who had a foundation of instrument care to build on, and none of them refused the duty thereafter.
I encourage everyone reading this who is in charge of the orientation schedule for inexperienced new hires to not start them in the most difficult job. Find a central duty in your department, which does not require PPE, and begin your staff training there. Allow new hires to work at their own pace, with a trainer that is not required to advance the department work. Allow them to meet their teammates, and have their teammates get to know them as well, to build a stronger department.