By Adam Okada

Introduction

Are you looking for Sterile Processing Week gifts and party game ideas?  Well search no further, because we have plenty of gift ideas, as well as party games, to make your Sterile Processing Week the best week ever!

Gift Ideas:

Sterile Processing Pins – Brown Industries

One great location that I have found for Sterile Processing pins is at browninc.com

They even have Sterile Processing specific pins like the one pictured here.  And you can customize stones and personal messages!

Sterile Processing Merch – Beyond Clean

The team over at Beyond Clean have a huge online store with every item you can think of!  From “I’d rather be in Decon” hats to “Microbial Dragonslayer” mugs, and the classic “270 – 4 – 30” which every Sterile Processing professional should recognize.

Sterile Processing Merch – Sterile Education

Not to toot our own horn over here at Sterile Education, but we do have some great looking designs available in lots of different formats.  Tagless tees, premium quality hoodies, mugs, phone cases and so much more!  Saving Patients Daily is by far our best seller, but check us out and see if there’s a design that you like better!

Sterile Processing Merch – IAHCSMM.org

The official IAHCSMM site has a ton of great designs for Sterile Processing professionals yearly!  Check the Jim Coleman Store here.

Games and Events:

My personal favorite thing to do during CS Week is to play some Sterile Processing games.  It’s the one week per year we should take a few minutes to cut loose!

Wrapping Contest

A Sterile Processing Week classic!  Each technician gets the same difficult to wrap tray (Bookwalter or Knee Triangle), and gets timed in how fast they can wrap the set.

We put our own spin on it to include quality by inviting the OR director down to SPD to judge the neatness of everyone’s wraps (if you can’t have 20 trays wrapped all at once, take pictures of each wrap after completion).

50% of the contest is speed, and 50% is neatness.  When scores are combined, whoever has the best average of the two is the winner!

Egg Hunt

Have the SPD Manager put candies or other prizes in clean peel pouches and hide them in difficult areas to find within the department.  Then let the staff loose to find them!

Some variations include a “golden” egg with a major prize.

Just make sure no one hides things in the “sterile storage” area (clean items not allowed here) and that someone makes sure ALL the prizes are found at the end of the game!

The Mock OR Call Game

This is an invention of my mentor, Cheron Rojo.  Make sure each employee is on their own.  Then give them a “mock” phone call from the OR asking for a tray or peel pouch, and start the timer.  The tech will then go to the sterile storage area to retrieve the item and bring it back to you (which ends the timer).

Another fun spin on this game is to scan the item to the WRONG location and see how long it takes staff to check the tracking system to find new location!  Which is a great lesson in using the tracking system!

Wrap/Tape Ball

Get a discarded or used wrap and use sterilization tape to shape it into the ball about the size of a softball (or slightly larger for more challenge).

Then stand about 10 feet back from the linen bin and take turns throwing the ball in!

Each round, make the contestants stand back a few feet and do it again until only one contestant remains!

In Conclusion

There are almost an infinite number of ways to enjoy Sterile Processing Week (or CS Week) with your staff, so don’t just get them pizza.  Get creative and find some team building games and prizes that will make your staff know how much you appreciate them!