Chapter 24- Personal and Professional Development for Sterile Processing

Personal Development

Activities that Identify and develop talent and personal potential, improve your employability, and enhance quality of life.

Professional Development

Commitment to continuous learning and improvement; taking responsibility for your own development.

Subordinate

An employee who is supervised by someone in a higher organizational position

Resume

A complication of one’s skills, education and accomplishments. It provides the employer with information to help them determine if a job candidate has the necessary knowledge and skills to be successful in a specific role.

Curriculum vitae (CV)

An academic summary of the individual’s experience, skills, and accomplishments. CVs include personal teaching experience, awards, degrees and published works.

[Workbook] Personal development:

• Improve employability

• Expands personal potential

• Is a lifelong process

[Workbook] When establishing personal goals, set goals that are:

Attainable, then build on those successes

[Workbook] Professional development includes:

• Keeping current in an existing job

• Activities to advance skills

• Attending on-the-job training and continuing education sessions

[Workbook] Mentoring others:

Is a positive behavior that gets noticed

[Workbook] When developing a professional timeline, one must:

• Recognize that some goals are easier to achieve than others

• Realize that promotions don’t usually happen overnight

• Understand that things won’t always go as planned

[Workbook] Online resources

Must be checked to confirm that the information and source are valid and current

[Workbook] Steps toward attaining professional goals in SP include

• Obtaining certification

• Attending educational conferences

• Participating in professional groups

[Workbook] One important step in preparing for an interview is:

Anticipating possible interview questions

[Workbook] When a technician is promoted to a higher position

• Their departmental relationships will change

• They need to consider the broader needs of the department and facility

• They should remember that things don’t always go as planned

[workbook] Improving professional development skills is an important part of:

Career advancement

[workbook] Professional development skill-building activities include:

• Team building activities

• Public speaking

• Staying current with standards and regulations

[workbook] Developing professional resources within sterile processing and the wider field of healthcare can build a (blank) with which to share information and discuss pertinent issues

Network

[workbook] Attending educational (blank) is one way to help achieve career goals.

Conferences

[workbook] One of the most important factors in attaining goals is finding the right (blank) to provide direction and support. This may include publications, courses or other information to enhance knowledge about a specific process or topic

resources

Positive behaviors that get noticed:

• Ability to work effectively on a team

• Practicing effective time management

• Being courteous, friendly, and helpful

• Taking responsibility

• Collaborating with co-workers and outside departments

• Being respectful

• Demonstrating a “can-do” attitude

• Having good attendance

• Asking questions

• Mentoring others

• Working well with difficult co-workers

• Possessing critical thinking skills

Basic technical skills for SP technicians

• Hand/eye dexerity

• Active listening and communication skills

• Problem solving

• Prioritization

• Ability to change tasks as needed

• Ability to evaluate job tasks for accuracy and completeness