{"id":10412,"date":"2017-06-23T06:12:56","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T14:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/?p=10412"},"modified":"2017-06-23T06:16:14","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T14:16:14","slug":"pros-central-sterile-not-dishwashers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/2017\/06\/23\/pros-central-sterile-not-dishwashers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pros in Central Sterile Are Not Dishwashers"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Shelley Brown makes a quality check on the instrument washer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Every Certified Veterinary Technician is trained to properly clean surgical instruments, but Shelley Brown and Ruth Mandsager take it to the next level.<\/p>\n

Shelley Brown has worked in the Central Sterile department of the hospital for six years. She is solely responsible for cleaning and sterilizing all the dirty equipment that is generated daily by a very busy hospital. If that sounds fairly simple, it\u2019s not. The job requires her to be a combination of mechanic, plumber, quality manager, chemical tester, and neat freak.<\/p>\n

The Central Sterile department processes drapes, scrubs, towels, instruments, hardware, tubing, cannulas, and all the delicate electronic instruments used in minimally invasive surgeries. Brown handles every piece three to five times. Some things need more cleaning than others; some even need to be inspected under a microscope for wear and damage. Most things go through an ultrasonic cleaner and the instrument washer; but scopes cameras and drills must all be handwashed.<\/p>\n

\u201cEngineers have designed all these cool devices, but can they be cleaned?\u201d says Brown. \u201cThey have to be sterilized so they can be used again and again.\u201d That\u2019s why the hospital doesn\u2019t buy their orthopedic drills at Home Depot. \u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve got to be able to sterilize it at 270 degrees for ten minutes. What electronic equipment likes that?\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

With their narrow, six-foot long tubes, light and computer cables, and camera at the end, endoscopes are especially tricky to sterilize.\u00a0 \u201cThe camera is immersible and autoclavable, but it is still delicate,\u201d says Brown. \u201cIf you accidentally put something in the wrong machine, you can destroy a $5,000 scope.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Brown is so committed to quality, she is working on a second certification in Central Sterile. Consequently, she is the only veterinary professional in attendance at human medical conferences on instrument sterilization. \u201cI\u2019m unique,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I sign in, they say, \u2018Oh you\u2019re the veterinary person\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conferences also provide Brown with colleagues who can discuss trouble shooting, which is an important part of her job. Whether an autoclave is acting up, or a dryer catches on fire, she has to be resourceful.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was having trouble with intermittent testing failures on the instrument washer and couldn\u2019t figure out why, so I talked to the people at the conference,\u201d she says. \u201cThey asked if I was priming the lines when refilling chemicals and I knew immediateley that was the problem; I was getting air bubbles in my lines. Our machine does not have the ability to prime lines so I had to figure out a way to get the chemicals in without introducing air.\u201d She has not had a test failure since. Brown has also been known to deal with clogged drains and assist the OSU mechanic to locate a pressure valve problem. \u201cYou have to be a bit mechanically inclined because that\u2019s how you solve the problem,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ruth Mandsager is another long-time CVT who now works in Central Sterile. In the past, she worked in anesthesia and emergency care, but likes the slower pace. \u201cThis is different because I am all by myself and it\u2019s quiet. Nothing dies back here; nothing poops on me back here,\u201d she says. \u201cI get burned occasionally but that\u2019s not a big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mandsager arrives at six in the morning and organizes the sterilized items that Shelley Brown cleaned the night before. She creates packs; everything from a tracheostomy pack with three or four instruments, to a soft-tissue surgery pack with 80 instruments. \u201cI have a list of packs. I arrange those, make sure everything is in there that the surgery department wants. I double wrap it in blue paper and date it,\u201d says Mandager. \u201cIt feeds my OCD. I get to have check lists and count things. I get to arrange them perfectly squared and clean. It makes me happy,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

The morning shift also allows Mandsager to pursue her other career: actor. She just finished starring in Sweeny Todd at the Albany Civic Theater, and last year directed a successful run of The Full Monty at the Majestic Theater in Corvallis. \u201cAs a technician, I did another kind of acting. My job was to put on a pleasant face no matter what was happening,\u201d she says. \u201cWatching clients go through treatment with pets who were really sick got hard after twenty-two years. It\u2019s challenging and exciting when you are young, but I\u2019m very glad to be here now.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Certified Veterinary Technician is trained to properly clean surgical instruments, but Shelley Brown and Ruth Mandsager take it to the next level. Shelley Brown has worked in the Central Sterile department of the hospital for six years. She is solely responsible for cleaning and sterilizing all the dirty equipment that is generated daily by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1802,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3054],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faculty-and-staff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3DBMX-2HW","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1802"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10412"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10422,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10412\/revisions\/10422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.blogs.oregonstate.edu\/collegeofveterinarymedicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}