By Katie Richie, BS, CHL, CIS, CRCST, CSPDT, CST

Healthcare practitioners say that the sterile processing department is the heart of the hospital–without it, everything fails within the hospital. Similarly, surgical technologists depend on the work of sterile processing technicians, as the relationship between the operating room and sterile processing department is critically important. I believe that students who complete both a sterile processing program and a surgical technology program gain a richer knowledge base and are valued within the workforce because of their strong foundations.  For me, this resulted in more leadership opportunities outside of the traditional operating room setting that culminated in helping to design a new sterile processing department and revamp the operating room process flow for the return of instrumentation to sterile processing.

I graduated from Fayetteville Technical Community College’s sterile processing program in 2014 and its surgical technology AAS degree program in 2017. I learned of the sterile processing program during an initial meeting with the program director, Terry Herring, to go over my current class credits to see if I was eligible to be accepted into the 2014 program year for surgical technology; however, I was short one class. Mr. Herring suggested the sterile processing program to me as an alternative while I completed the last needed course and waited for the 2015 surgical technology program selection. As an added bonus, the sterile processing program provided me with advantage of added points in the selection process for the surgical technology program.

At the time, I knew nothing about sterile processing, but after learning more and completing the program, it will always have my heart. I remain grateful to have completed the sterile processing program because of all the skills it taught me to be a strong Certified Surgical Technologist and an ally to the sterile processing department.

After starting the surgical technology program, I quickly realized that between didactic and lab coursework and competencies, it was a much larger class load than the sterile processing program. Although it was challenging to learn the names of each instrument and identify in which surgical case(s) the instruments are typically used, I felt secure in my instrumentation knowledge from my sterile processing program. This allowed me to focus most of my attention on the instructional classes, which in turn helped me feel less overwhelmed. I began to mentor fellow students, sharing tricks I learned in the sterile processing program that helped them learn the instrumentation easier and faster.

After graduation, I was placed in various leadership roles because of my strong educational background and experience in both sterile processing and surgical technology. My new career flourished as I served as a Supervisor and Educator in Sterile Processing and a Liaison for the Operating Room and Sterile Processing. My strong cross knowledge of the two areas and my ability to understand how each department works allowed me to mend relationships that were otherwise broken between the departments. My career growth continued as I helped design a new sterile processing department and revamp the operating room process flow for instrumentation return to sterile processing. I wouldn’t have grasped the Surgical Technology program the way I did without the prior experience the Sterile Processing program taught me.

Katie Ritchie, BS, CHL, CIS, CRCST, CSPDT, CST, currently works as a supply chain specialist for Solaris Health-Colorado Springs Urological Associates. She recently served as Liaison between OR & SPD at Parker Adventist Hospital in Parker, Colorado, and as Sterile Processing Charge at St. Francis Medical Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before that. She obtained her Bachelor’s of Science in Healthcare Management from Park University in 2019.

Do you have a sterile processing program that also serves as a pipeline into your surgical technology program or are you interested in starting one?  Join EdAccred’s next Better together on April 14 at 1 p.m. MT to share your ideas and innovations for SP and ST program synergy or learn more about your fellow educators’ experiences ideas and innovations. We will examine the economies of scale in the development, implementation and management of a sterile processing program as a prerequisite to, or in conjunction with, a surgical technology program. Register at https://edaccred.org/accredu-webinars.