Back-to-Skills
Training

Fundamentals and origins of medical terms; analyzing, defining, and creating medical terms; identifying major body structures and directional terms.

Aseptic technique defined; the reasoning for aseptic technique; clinical settings where aseptic technique is used; essential preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative aseptic practices and procedures; aseptic nontouch technique; definition of a clean technique; recommended technique for commonly performed procedures.

Definition of bloodborne pathogens; common bloodborne pathogens; exposure accidents in the healthcare setting; exposure control plan; universal precautions in the healthcare setting; HIPAA privacy and security rules and their implications in the sterile processing setting; difference between privacy and security; types of protected health information within the medical field.

Introduction to the concepts, processes, skills, responsibilities, and standards requirements of sterile processing; review of basic anatomy, physiology, and concepts of microbiology and microorganisms types related to the duties of sterile processing technicians.

Industry regulations and established practices used for central sterile processing; federal agencies and professional organizations; principles of asepsis; personal hygiene and attire; managing the spread of bacteria; elements of transmission and the chain of infection.

Decontamination practices for point-of-use preparation and equipment transport; cleaning, decontamination, and disinfection practices for common instrumentation and equipment; equipment and tools used for the decontamination process; identification of standard and complex surgical instruments.

Assembly and packaging guidelines and procedures; point-of-use processing standards and recommended practices; high-temperature sterilization procedures; types of steam sterilizers used; low-temperature sterilization requirements; sterile storage and transportation guidelines.

Monitoring and recordkeeping practices; established quality assurance practices for sterile processing operations; importance of inventory management; common inventory replenishment systems; the role of the central service department in supporting ancillary departments; management of patient care equipment; the use of information management systems in central service departments.

Workplace safety and disaster preparedness; essentials of workplace communication, human relations, diversity, team collaboration, and customer service skills; importance of personal and professional development.

Review of common workplace technology related to computing and communication, such as common operating systems, software applications for word processing, and spreadsheets, as well as mobile communication tools.

Professionalism and workplace etiquette; phone skills; writing emails and texts; writing and formatting reports.

Review of standard calculations and solving simple equations encountered in entry-level technical positions. Measurement systems and conversion concepts related to temperature and volume, English and Metric systems, and converting within and between systems.