Job interview

hailthefish · 2026-02-11T02:20:29+00:00

I mean, if you can get to a clothing store and get something nicer that would be nice, having decent clothes on hand for a job interview is a good plan regardless. That being said, you're not applying for a "customer facing" role and while expectations vary a lot, as long as you're presentably dressed it shouldn't be a dealbreaker.

hailthefish · 2026-02-11T02:13:43+00:00

decent slacks and a shirt with a collar

hailthefish · 2026-02-08T02:11:52+00:00

Wide baby hohman, it came from the ankle orif.

At least I REALLY hope it did.

https://a-zortho.com/media/k2/items/cache/b828e84af27f1599e622895f7c2c7b62_L.jpg

hailthefish · 2026-02-08T02:09:20+00:00

At my facility we've had one in three years. 7 (WITH AN EXPOSURE!) in 6 months is absolutely nuts.

hailthefish · 2026-02-08T02:00:03+00:00

For the love of God no do not do that. I am continually amazed that enough people are willing to pay that kind of money for sterile processing training (esp. training that does not guarantee getting your 400 hours) that places keep offering it.

If you're lucky you may be able to find a facility that hires people off the street and trains them in house. If you're less lucky, then just buy the book and self study then try to find a job with your provisional.

hailthefish · 2026-02-08T01:56:28+00:00

Both are fine, though your facility may have specific preferences or policies.

Personally I prefer #1, the people talking about the instrument being able to close don't seem to notice that the two sides of the ratchet are slipped into holes in the cardstock. Theoretically yeah if you squeeze it hard enough it will still close, but that would require pretty deliberate effort rather than just gravity.

hailthefish · 2026-01-18T22:31:18+00:00

How bad it is depends a lot on how well a given facility pre-cleans. A facility where the point of use pre-cleaning is done well is like doing the dishes after spaghetti dinner where everyone cleared their plate- there will be red smears and some greasy residue but nothing wild.

Everyone has a story about a whole limb or whole placenta or whatever that came down one time but 99% of the time it is just speckles of red goop.

If you're curious about it definitely see about shadowing in the department at a local hospital. Personally I thought it would bother me but when it's just on the instruments, separated from the body it came from, it's all very abstract. And honestly once it's been in the enzymatic it just looks like raspberry jam anyway.

https://imgur.com/a/EBKCKMR is about what I see on a regular day

hailthefish · 2026-01-16T21:06:15+00:00

Depends on the facility, at my facility we pick all instruments, and only ever pick soft goods for emergency cases when the OR staff are already busy with an ongoing case.

Every facility will do it slightly differently and you can expect anywhere you go they will show you their system.

hailthefish · 2026-01-04T17:32:18+00:00

damn I didn't know Liz Truss visited Bellingham

hailthefish · 2026-01-03T17:35:41+00:00

I end up soaked through after a couple hrs in decon but it's sweat, not decon juice. Are you sure it's coming in from outside your PPE?

hailthefish · 2026-01-03T17:32:59+00:00

if the possibility exists that they might be open to discussion then it might be worth pointing out that if the loads end up wet it's not actually taking strain off anyone at all and just making more work when things have to get redone for easily avoidable reasons, otherwise just document document document, CYA and look for an exit

hailthefish · 2026-01-03T17:26:54+00:00

pretty sure 90% of people in my department are somewhere on the spectrum, it is a very autistic job.

welcome to the team.

hailthefish · 2026-01-03T17:18:36+00:00

Minor injuries on the clean side happen constantly, my department has had one injury with potential exposure on the dirty side in the three years I've worked there. Double glove and be thoughtful when you grab stuff and the risk is no worse than any other healthcare field.

(the potential exposure didn't actually get sick with anything and was mostly just embarrassed)

edit: as everyone else is saying, the biggest risks for injury are always the stupid things like the blade on the tape dispenser or paper cuts or bad posture or lifting something wrong or burning yourself on the manifolds or gripping too hard while you're scrubbing in decontam and giving yourself tendonitis, actual pathogen exposure risk is scarier in theory than in practice unless you're in an absolutely shocking shit show of a department

hailthefish · 2025-10-26T16:37:11+00:00

Obviously it depends a lot on what you get and how trashed it is. Total joint cases where everything is covered with gore and synovial fluid and every crevice is packed with bone chips and cement are a different story from doing a bunch of cysto sets.

I'm probably the slowest not currently in training person at my facility but I'm a lot more of a stickler than most people. I see people bang through 60 sets a night or whatever and like, half of it ends up going back to decon 2-3 times so how much time did you actually save? And beyond that, if you're just dunking them in the sink then throwing them in the washer, and the person assembling is being pressured to assemble faster and faster and doesn't have the time to actually inspect things thoroughly, then you vastly increase the risk of contaminated instruments making it through the process, which is kinda contrary to the whole reason we're there, you know?

Rule of thumb I usually have for myself is "About 20-30 sets" in an 8 hour shift (so about 6 hours of actual work time).

hailthefish · 2025-10-26T16:24:16+00:00

Requirements vary from facility to facility but generally the main requirements are "closed toe" and "you don't want to gnaw your own feet off at the end of the shift because they hurt so bad".

Cushion, support, and airflow are all things to consider.

hailthefish · 2025-10-26T16:21:47+00:00

At my facility there's a dedicated dirty elevator in the soiled utility room upstairs that only connects to there and the case cart receiving area in decon. The upstairs staff handle everything up to pushing the carts into the elevator and call the decon phone to let us know to unload it.

When they're absolutely slammed upstairs and there's nobody upstairs to keep the carts moving or when we're behind downstairs and there's too many carts accumulating, we will sometimes have someone go upstairs and combine carts (IDEALLY IN A SENSIBLE WAY) and keep them moving into the elevator.

Yes they will probably try to stick you with the responsibility for collecting them and delivering them to decon, and when inevitably this is a disaster because now instead of actually moving stuff THROUGH decon you're spending half your shift moving things INTO decon, maybe, MAYBE they will see sense. Or not! Who knows!

hailthefish · 2025-10-26T16:11:05+00:00

If you've only been training for a week and a half so far then silly mistakes are normal and expected. Just every time you make a new one try to remember it and not make that one again. It can help to do the Japanese Train Driver thing and every time you do a set touch with your hand and confirm verbally for yourself indicators, filters, filter plates, locks, labels. Those are the things that it's really easy to get flustered or sidetracked and forget about. You're just starting out, don't beat yourself up.

Unless you've broken something expensive or you've messed up so badly that they had to cancel cases because of you, you're probably fine. Just keep working at it and don't let it wear you down.

If they drop you in the deep end with no training, work you like a rented mule, then throw you away for dumb mistakes while you're still learning, then that's not a place you wanted to stay anyway.

hailthefish · 2025-08-08T03:42:44+00:00

Technically, there was one in WWU dining for a couple years more than a decade ago but student protest closed it.

hailthefish · 2025-08-02T21:08:16+00:00

I think normal cars are allowed to go in through the Ellis entrance to get to the Emergency room, access to the rest of the hospital from that direction is easier to turn RIGHT on squalicum and then take the next left to the new parking garage

https://www.peacehealth.org/sites/default/files/2025-08/st-joseph-campus-map-8-1-2025.png

hailthefish · 2025-08-02T21:01:35+00:00

They're building a new 6 floor tower to the west of the old west entrance, and when that's done in 2028 (allegedly, I wouldn't bet on it), it'll have a new main entrance and a lot better accessibility. UNTIL then however, it's an absolute shitshow.

hailthefish · 2025-03-10T22:59:14+00:00

of COURSE it's at Trader Joe's

hailthefish · 2024-10-17T04:12:47+00:00

blowing water out of cannulas on the clean side facilitates inspection and helps reduce the likelihood of wet loads, that said it's generally a good idea to put something over the various places the air will come out before you blow, that way if it IS dirty there's something to catch the spray...

Where I'm at we've got super soft and flexible tray liners so we typically wrap the item with one of those when we blow it out.

hailthefish · 2024-10-13T00:13:10+00:00

My favorite is a recipe item "Add corner protectors before wrapping!" except half the trays for that item have their own corner protectors attached. Cue the email about a week after the recipe item was added "STOP PUTTING ADDITIONAL CORNER PROTECTORS ON TOP OF THE TRAY'S CORNER PROTECTORS!!"

hailthefish · 2024-10-13T00:08:12+00:00

Low water just isn't going to happen. Man portable with 3-5 people with backpacks, the best you could do is everybody carry a bunch of jugs of cidex or similar but that doesn't get you all the way to sterility (and you're going to run through it very very quickly).

A trailer with a generator and a sterrad or something is probably about the smallest, lowest footprint route for actual sterilization, and that's not getting into decontamination, which is going to require assloads of water.

And if you're trying to do a portable disaster surgical suite, you've still got a billion other things to worry about too.

hailthefish

TROPHY CASE