Sterilisation technicians play a vital role in the health care system. Their job is to clean, sterilise and package surgical instruments and other hospital equipment.
If sterilisation technicians don’t do their job correctly, operations can be delayed, patients can get infections and hospitals can get sued.
In this article, Chisholm sterilisation teacher Stephen Ainger sheds light on this intriguing job and what’s involved.
Why choose to be a sterilisation technician?
“We get students from all walks of life doing this course,” Stephen says.
For mature-age students, often they are looking for a career change and want to try something different.
“Sometimes it’s a good career choice for people looking for jobs in hospitals that don’t involve patient contact,” says Stephen. “We also get people who are working in the health field already and want to move into the Central Sterilising Services Department (CSSD).”
Stephen says one of the real drawcards is the stability. “Most people who get jobs in CSSDs tend to stay there a long time – we’re talking 30 years,” he says.
According to the Australian Government’s Labour Market Insights, the average age of sterilisation technicians is 50, with females making up 72% of the workforce.
What does a sterilisation technician do?
There’s quite a process involved in ensuring surgical instruments and other hospital equipment are properly cleaned. There are strict protocols in place because of the infection risk when dealing with blood, bone and human products.
Instruments arrive in the decontamination area
The decontamination area is where the dirty, used instruments arrive from theatre or the wards. This area is physically cut off from the other parts of CSSD to avoid contamination.
Sterilisation technicians working in this area have to wear correct PPE, which can include:
- Overshoes
- Scrubs (like a surgeon or theatres nurse would wear)
- Impervious gowns with long sleeves and cuffs to stop any splashes of blood and infectious material getting on their scrubs
- Double gloves – an inner one and an outer long glove covering the cuffs of the impervious gown
- Masks
- Facial shields to stop splashes of blood getting on their face
- Hair nets.
Instruments are pre-washed
The sterilisation technician assesses the instruments and how to clean them.
General instruments such as metal instruments, scissors and forceps undergo a pre-wash. This can include rinsing or soaking the instruments if there’s blood or other human product that’s dried on them.
In some instances, an ultrasonic cleaning machine is used to clean blood products off the instruments using sound waves. Next, they are rinsed again.
Instruments go through the washer/disinfector
After the pre-wash stage, the instruments are placed in trays and put through a washer/disinfector. In simple terms, this is an industrial-strength dishwasher, but with much higher temperatures and pressure than in a home dishwasher.
The instruments are loaded in a special way so that every part of the instrument gets cleaned properly.
Instruments are unloaded and checkedOnce the trays have run through a cycle, the instruments are unloaded from the other side of the washer/disinfector and allowed to cool down.
If the sterilisation technician completes a shift in decontamination, they have to remove PPE and perform hand hygiene before moving from the decontamination area to the clean area. PPE in the clean side of CSSD is only mask, hair net & overshoes with the scrubs.
The sterilisation technician then runs through a checklist of every instrument in the tray. There’s a different checklist for each procedure performed at a hospital.
There are also various control systems in place to ensure the instruments are thoroughly cleaned and functioning.
“There’s a lot of checking in this job to make sure nothing is missed,” says Stephen.
Instruments are sterilised and wrappedThe last piece of the puzzle involves wrapping the instruments with a special material to ensure they remain germ-free and then sterilising them using high pressure, temperature & steam.
At this point, the wrapped instruments are checked to ensure that they have been sterilised correctly and placed in sterile storage ready for use again.
Other types of instruments
The process is a little different for heat-sensitive instruments. Equipment likes endoscopes, cameras and electrical items must be manually cleaned, again following strict protocols.
Canulated items (with a hollow tube at both ends) may also have to be cleaned with an ultra-sonic cleaner, a water and an air gun to ensure no blood is left inside, before being loaded into a washer-disinfector.
What attributes do sterilisation technicians need?
If you don’t like the sight of blood, this is probably not going to be the career for you, says Stephen.
“Not all surgeons are going to be messy, but there will be times when you get some nasty looking trays coming back,” he says. “There may be lots of blood. If it’s an orthopaedic treatment like a hip replacement or knee reconstruction there may be bits of bone on the instruments, so it can look pretty gruesome sometimes.”
Stephen says attention to detail is also very important, as is being a good communicator. “These CSSDs are very closely knit teams who work together,” says Stephen. “It’s important to be able to communicate with your colleagues and if you’re not sure of something, to always ask.”
Sterilisation technician courses
When it comes to sterilisation technician training, the Certificate III in Sterilisation Services is a great place to start. The course includes theory work, group work and practical sessions.
It takes about six months to complete this sterilisation technician course and usually includes two weeks’ placement. “If you do really well at placement, more often than not it will lead to a job,” says Stephen.
Sterilisation technician job opportunities
With a lot of elective surgeries resuming, Stephen says there’s plenty of work for sterilisation technicians and sterilisation assistants at the moment.
“It’s a really good time to be looking at it as a career,” he says.
Sterilisation technician salary
Based on a seek.com.au search, the starting wage can be around $50,000 to $70,000 a year for a sterilisation technician job, says Stephen. With time, the pay usually increases in increments in line with your grading.
As a casual, you may expect to earn anywhere from $27 to $50 per hour for sterilisation technician jobs (source: indeed.com.au).
Keen to learn more about working in sterilisation services?
To find out more about becoming a sterilisation technician, head to our Certificate III in Sterilisation Services course page. We can also suggest other potential jobs in hospitals that may be of interest, so please get in touch.
