Path to SFA five. Training begins

SFA four here
After placing ads and interviewing candidates, of which, if I remember correctly, there were only a few, none qualified as certified or experienced. Surgical techs were still a scarce commodity at the time. The fact that the town was so small and basically in the middle of nowhere was also to my advantage. With no local employee base to draw from and relocation an issue for anyone else, it was announced just two weeks after the search began, that I would start my on the job training as their new surgical technologist. I had made it at last! My patience and perseverance (harassment ?) finally paid off.

My training began by spending the first week in central sterile processing. This is where the instruments are brought after they are disinfected with enzymes that remove gross contamination.The sets are brought here to be reassembled and placed in their containers or peel packs or wrapped in blue wrap and autoclaved for sterilization. Central sterile is a great place to begin learning the names of the instruments, a vital bit of knowledge for a surg tech. You also learn proper sterilization techniques and how to identify something that has not passed sterilization parameters. There are checks and triple checks performed to insure sterility of instruments.
Before you can begin doing the fun stuff, you must first know the proper way to scrub, gown and glove, and learn sterile technique. With the help of a timer, scrubbing was easy enough. Gowning yourself if fairly simple, but learning how to closed glove yourself takes a little more practice. You must keep your hands safely within the end of the sleeve of the gown and not extend beyond the cuff. Then you pick up a folded sticky glove with your mittened hands and lay it on one gowned wrist, usually right hand first, upside down and backwards with thumb to thumb. The long cuff of the glove is folded over about halfway. With certain brands of gloves, the cuff is often quite sticky and hard to separate. With your other mittened hand you peel the folded cuff of the sticky glove forward around your fingers while holding the other cuff end of the glove with the enclosed hand you are currently gloving. Then, as you wrap the glove around, you are able to slide your hand forward through the gown sleeve and it should end up enclosed in the glove. Sounds easy enough! The good news is that after you perfect this move, you get to smirk under your mask at residents, PAs, med students and even some assistant surgeons who have no clue how to glove themselves.
Sterile technique is something tangible that can be taught. Sterile conscience is a little bit different. Part of sterile conscience involves recognizing a break in the sterile field, reporting it, and taking steps to reestablish sterile field. It is about being the patients advocate. As a tech, one very important part of my job is to protect the sterile field. It also became my pet peeve. If anyone non-sterile gets too close to my sterile field, I let them know. And they don't forget.

When it was finally time to start learning procedures, the girls who were precepting me decided that I should begin my training in the Procedure Core. The worst duty one could have was in the Procedure Core, which was their title for the Endoscopy Suite, aka GI Lab, aka any other title that makes what goes on there seem more glamorous. Well, let me tell ya' there is nothing glam about EGD's and colonoscopy's . Especially if it is your own. For the first week , they stood right there with me, instructing me on the proper way to handle a polyp specimen, how to give proper sigmoid pressure to help the surgeon maneuver the colonoscope through this redundant section of colon, care and cleaning of the endoscopes, etc., etc. By the third week, they would sit just outside the room at the nurse's station, within a shout's reach should I need help. Week four, I was on my own. Not a problem, I felt pretty confidant. However, I began to wonder just when I was going to be allowed in the OR to learn "real" procedures. Two more weeks had passed and I realized that they were very content just to leave me up there because that meant less poop and drool for them. I had to throw a little hissy to finally let them know I was on to them!
prelude here
one here
two here
three