2024 GI Reprocessing Landscape Report Executive Summary

July 10, 2024 9:41 pm

Pure Processing’s annual industry reports provide useful insights, trends, and challenges through the eyes of nurses and technicians working in departments daily. Through their responses and insights, managers and leadership can open a window into what reprocessing professionals are seeing and thinking in new ways, and across the country. This year’s GI Nurse & Technician Survey (results used to create the 2024 GI Reprocessing Landscape Report) incorporates the responses from 276 GI or GI-related individuals from across the United States, as well as a handful of international participants. This executive summary highlights some of the major themes and challenges identified within the 2024 GI Reprocessing Landscape Report.

Training & Education

GI nurses and technicians demonstrated a clear desire for more training & educational opportunities throughout the report, across several different prompts and questions. Additional training and education opportunities can help teams get more familiar with the endoscopes they handle and reprocess, stay up to date on IFUs, and keep their existing knowledge and skillset honed for continued effectiveness.

Compliance

Going hand-in-hand with training & education, compliance was top of mind for participants. The complexity of endoscopes, as well as the IFUs that accompany them, as well as evolving guidelines, can be challenging to keep up with. This reinforces the need for ongoing training and education with support from managers and leadership to help obtain and prioritize the resources the department needs.

Entering the Industry

GI professionals continue to stream into departments from other areas of healthcare or healthcare-related roles. These vary from places like sterile processing and the OR, as well working their way through other departments, such as housekeeping. Some factors drawing people to work in GI are more regular hours, better work/life balance, and an interest in the technology and nature of the work. 47.03% of participants shared that the interesting, fast-paced nature of working in GI is an aspect of their role they really enjoy. 42.16% expressed their passion for serving and protecting patients as a factor contributing to their satisfaction working in GI reprocessing.

Teams & Culture

For a second year in a row, participants signaled that teams, team dynamics, and culture are what make departments great to work in. This includes sharing a sense of pride or purpose in the work teams complete together, an emphasis on patient safety, management styles, and recognition.

Some participants from the Survey commented:

“A team of people who respect and enjoy working with each other and care about their work.”

“Having good management, team workflow, patient safety being the top priority; the importance of doing the right thing when no one is looking… taking care of each other!”

Leaving GI Departments

Working conditions, such as stress, poor ergonomics, and general burnout, were the top reason nurses and technicians leave departments. Lack of upward mobility and management rounded out the top three reasons for departure of colleagues in GI. This is consistent with the results seen in the 2023 report and demonstrates continued challenges for managers and leaders.

Upcoming Challenges

Compliance, guidelines, and IFU requirements were the top priority for participants when asked to identify what aspects of GI reprocessing will grow in importance or present new challenges in 2024. Staffing also remained a top concern, with 23.86% citing it in 2024. Endoscope design and complexity was the third most anticipated challenge to grow in importance in 2024.