Ask the Educator Podcast

International guest, Aimee Space, joins Kevin Anderson on Healthmark's Ask the Educator podcast to discuss her career path in OR & SPD. Listen in as Aimee shares advice for all SPD professionals looking to climb the leadership ladder!

In endoscopy and sterile processing, we often run into the same issues. Training staff to do incredibly complex tasks, while they are under constant pressure to perform quickly. Stress often leads to mistakes, which then leads to hospital-acquired infections. What if there was a better way to perform this training? In the podcast, we welcome guests, Damien Berg, Sarah B. Cruz and Sandra Hilliard to discuss an HSPA sponsored program focused on endoscope reprocessing training, and more importantly, retention. Learn about this unique and exciting program from actual participants.

Each SPD has problem areas of their own, but have you ever wondered how facilities across the country might look or perform? Our Healthmark Education team has been all over the United States and has that insight into how we are doing as an industry...the results aren't always pretty. In this episode, Cheron, Malinda and Seth discuss the good, the bad, and the ugly and what we as an industry can learn from these findings. Don't miss this chance to gain insight into what other facilities are doing well, and what mistakes you need to avoid!

Do you know what is inside your flexible scopes? Microbial surveillance can tell you exactly what is living inside your scopes, but how can we implement that kind of program? Dr. Mary Ann Drosnock joins the podcast to share how we can create these types of programs at our facilities and help further protect our patients!

After a LinkedIn post made by our host, Kevin Anderson, about the importance of testing bipolar forceps for insulation integrity, our guest, Rebecca Peplau, commented about a scenario featuring a specific brand of bipolar forceps and how the SPD technicians were potentially damaging the forceps, just by doing the routine testing! Nothing was written about the issue in the IFU, however. Listen in to learn more about what happened, and how this issue was resolved!

Have you ever had fire start in your SPD or OR? Or have you heard of a patient being burned by electrosurgical equipment? If FDA reports are any indication, most of us have experienced at least one of these events at some point in our careers. So how does this happen in such a controlled and secure environment? In this episode of the Ask the Educator Podcast, Kevin and Adam speak to Jahan Azizi about all things electrosurgical to understand why testing the integrity and continuity of our cords and cables is so vitally important to keep patients safe.

In many processing departments too, much emphasis is placed purely on repetition as the means educating the staff. Unfortunately, this leaves many processing professional ill equipped to make good decisions when problems arise. In these moments, when critical thinking is required, staff members whose education lacks a true understanding of why they are doing the task the way they are will be ill prepared to react appropriately. This also effects staff's ability to participate in risk assessment activities as well. Incorporating "why" into any department's education program will add quality by creating technicians that not only understand how to do their job but why they do it that way.

Have you ever had a decontamination gown soak through to your scrubs? Have you been splashed from the back side at the sink? Listen in to this episode and learn more about PB70. Co-chairs Cheron Rojo & Jill Holdsworth will explain what PB70 is and how the Protective Barriers Committee is looking to keep SPD technicians safe!

You may be familiar with ST79 (steam sterilization) and ST91 (flexible endoscopes), but have you heard about ST98: Cleaning validation for healthcare products? AAMI veteran, Ralph Basile, guides us through what the new guidelines state about how manufacturers should be testing their devices to ensure clean products for patients, and how these changes could make for better manufacturer IFU's for end users down the road.

Whether you're a veteran of flexible endoscope processing, or brand new to the field, this podcast series on ST91 is designed for you! In this episode with guest John Whelan, we discuss ST91 and the informative annexes at the back of the document. What do you do when the IFU’s for the scope don’t match the AER manufacturer IFU? Want to know more about simethicone and flexible scopes? How about more information on drying flexible endoscopes? John takes us through all of these questions and more!