Perhaps you've heard of horse racings' "Triple Crown" 🏇 👑 👑 👑 ,
or hockey's "Hat Trick" 🏒 🏒 🏒 ,
or even bowling's "Turkey" 🎳 🎳 🎳 ?
Well, today you get to see what I'll call #SterileProcessing's "Come On, Man!" 🫠 🫠 🫠
You see those 3 red check's below? You see those little (well drawn) red arrows? They're all drawing your attention to THREE different peel pack layers (!) being used on this self-retaining retractor package. Not only that, the third and smallest package was "modified" by a pair of scissors to serve as a homemade tip protector for the device.
Here's the deal, folks. 👇
The technician who did this did NOT wake up in the morning and say to themselves, "Self, I think I'm going to go do something completely non-compliant, unvalidated, and just a bit comical (if it weren't so important) at work today."
No, in all likelihood, this technician was failed by someone, perhaps many someones, just like you and me. They were hired, "trained", "onboarded", assumedly competencied, and maybe even shown by someone else how to do this. In fact, no one in the entire department either noticed or was aware that there was anything amiss with this practice.
--
You might have thought that "Come on, Man!" comment earlier in this post was pointed at the tech who did this, but you'd be wrong.
Me, you, and everyone else who has ever had a role to play in training, teaching, and communicating in this industry has responsibility to bear for these kinds of practices. Or to quote the words of Samuel to King David, "YOU are the man!"
Rather than thinking to yourself that you'd never do this, or your department would never do this, would you join me in working, advocating, and networking even harder today and in the days to come to ensure that no one, anywhere, ever thinks to do this in any hospital in our country?
This is the only way we win, for ourselves and our patients.
We're going to have to win together. 💪
What say you?
HT: Beyond Clean
#SterileProcessing #BeyondClean #WeFightDirty #Together
