CATEGORY: Culture
Sep 03, 2024
2024 SPD State of the Industry Report Insights: Key Year-Over-Year Takeaways
The 2024 Sterile Processing State of the Industry Report included responses from 569 participants across the United States, illuminating interesting trends, insights, and challenges. To get a better understanding of the direction SPD is heading, emerging problems, and consistent trends, comparing insights year-over-year is a valuable activity. Here are some of the key comparisons, denoting how some things are changing, while others are staying the same: GI Crossovers Slightly fewer participants indicated prior experience in GI in 2024 (49%) vs 2023 (54%). Despite that dip, this figure still represents about half of the survey participants, with a larger sample size in 2024 reaffirming that there is considerable crossover between GI and SPD departments. How people are entering the industry Found an open position without prior knowledge of SPD: 2023 saw 43.27% of participants starting their SPD careers without prior knowledge of the industry. That percentage dropped slightly in 2024 to 37.43%. Referred by a friend of colleague: 28.65% of 2023 participants were referred to their first job in sterile processing. That number dropped by almost exactly ten percentage points, down to 18.63% in 2024. Moved from another department in the hospital/facility: Moves within current healthcare facilities saw the largest change year-over-year, more than doubling 2023’s 14.62%, with 31.11% of 2024 participants indicating this is how they found their way to SPD. Pursued education with the intent of starting a career in SPD: 2024 saw a slight dip in the number of participants that pursued education to enter SPD professionals at 12.83% compared to 2023’s 13.45%. This seems to indicate that roughly 13% of those working in SPD make a conscious choice to get into the industry before joining the workforce. The most noteworthy change is almost certainly the number of people moving to SPD from somewhere else in their facility. This information should factor into how managers are filling roles in their sterile processing department, as there appears to be either a shift or further affirmation via larger sample size that movement within facilities is particularly common. What sterile processing professionals enjoy about their work In 2023, Patient Safety/Care (28.29%), Variety of Work (11.71%) and Importance of Work (10.24%) were the top three aspects of work SPD pros enjoyed the most. The same held true in 2024, with Impact on Patient Safety included by 45% of participants, Continuous Learning & Variety ofWork cited by 30% of participants, and A Sense of Accomplishment & Importance of Work being factoring into job satisfaction by 19.79%. It is clear that these three components have considerable staying power in the minds of those working in SPD, and departments will likely benefit from reinforcing and fostering a culture that promotes them to maintain morale and staffing levels. Why people leave SPD 2024 shares many similarities with 2023 regarding the top reasons technicians leave a sterile processing department. While the percentages moves up and down slightly, the top three reasons, in the same order as 2023, were Lack of Appreciation, Physical Demands of the Work, and Lack of Upward Mobility. Management Style came in at fourth, just like 2023 as well. One key difference is what 9.15% of participants signaled as the fifth-top reason departments lose good technicians: Work/life Balance. Work/like Balance was not reported in 2023’s report. Even more interesting, the item replaced by Work/life Balance, Nature of Work (9.56% in 2023), wasn’t represented in 2024 responses. Interested in more insights and information from the 2024 Sterile Processing State of the Industry Report? Check out our other blog posts detailing findings ahead of its publication on 10.1.24!