Run the reprocessing room for a day

You are a dental assistant responsible for the reprocessing room at Warners Bay for the day.

Simulated workplaceEntry missionCAQA Lakeside Health

What is going on

Steriliser B has been out of service since load 26-0911 failed to hold temperature on 3 September, so every load must go through steriliser A and instrument turnover is tight. Four dental chairs are running a full day of examinations, restorations and two surgical extractions in surgery 3, which needs two surgical kits by 11:00 am. The Sterilisation Coordinator is chairside all day. A trainee has left a container of used instruments on the clean bench overnight. The load log shows load 26-0917 still recorded as cycle running from yesterday afternoon with no release decision recorded. The Principal Dentist wants every load traceable to the patient it is used on.

Aisha Rahimi, Dental Assistant and Sterilisation Coordinator
Subject: You are running the reprocessing room on Tuesday

I am chairside with Dr Kowalczyk all day Tuesday, so you have the reprocessing room. Steriliser B is still out of service after the failed load on 3 September, so every load goes through steriliser A. Read the Reusable Medical Device Reprocessing Procedure again before you start. Run the daily air removal test first, record every load in the Reprocessing and Steriliser Load Log with the indicator results, and do not release anything until the printout and indicators are checked. Surgery 3 needs two surgical kits by 11:00 am. If anything fails, quarantine the whole load and call me.

Your brief

Set up the reprocessing room correctly, resolve the two record and workflow problems you find, process the day's loads through steriliser A with complete records, release or quarantine each load correctly and keep the surgical kits available on time without cutting corners.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

Read the Reusable Medical Device Reprocessing Procedure and the Infection Prevention and Control Policy and list the zone rules, the daily tests and the release criteria.
Deal with the container left on the clean bench: describe how you move it, what you clean and what you record, then report it as a near miss in the Clinical Incident and Hazard Register.
Investigate load 26-0917 in the Reprocessing and Steriliser Load Log, decide whether it can be released from the printout and indicators or must be quarantined, and update the record.
Run and record the daily air removal test on steriliser A before the first load of the day.
Clean, inspect and package the surgical kits for surgery 3 and record a new load with contents, operator and indicator placement, then run the cycle and record the parameters.
Release the surgical load only when the criteria are met and record the release, then confirm with surgery 3 how the load number will be recorded in the patients' records.
Plan the remaining loads for the day so that examination kits keep up with four chairs using one steriliser, and write the plan down for the coordinator.
Record the personal protective equipment you wore in the dirty zone and one hand hygiene moment you completed between zones.

My notes: what did I enjoy, and what surprised me?

What someone in this role would produce

Three completed or corrected entries in the Reprocessing and Steriliser Load Log
Incident register entry for the clean bench near miss
Daily test record for steriliser A
Written load plan for the day
Short note on protective equipment and hand hygiene

Printing this is a record of what you explored. It is not a certificate or a qualification.