Celebrating SP Week Year Round

Each year, sterile processing departments everywhere look forward to a single week, their week; SP Week.

SP Week offers the opportunity for healthcare facilities and their employees to celebrate sterile processing working in the heart of the hospital to ensure patient safety during each and every surgery.It’s difficult work that many don’t have an appreciation for, which is why dedicating a week each year is so important.

But is it really enough?

We didn’t think so! We sat down with Adrienne Hill, Sterile Processing Manager at Penn State Health – St. Joseph, the winner of Pure Processing’s 2024 SP Week photosubmission raffle, to discuss the importance of SP Week, activities, and how to carry a little bit of that SP Week energy into the rest of the year.

The Importance of SP Week

SP Week serves to drive awareness of sterile processing departments and the critical work that gets done within them. “It gets our department out there for people to see”, Hill explained.

This awareness isn’t limited to sterile processing-adjacent departments. Everyone, from doctors to surgical techs to nurses, and even members of senior leadership, celebrate the sterile processing

team during SP Week. This is important not only because SPD teams deserve to be acknowledged, but also because other areas of the hospital need to understand why sterile processing is such a critical part of operations.

SP Week Activities

It’s one thing to celebrate and verbally express appreciation, but it’s also important to show teams their appreciation through actions. This can come in a variety of forms, such potlucks, organized lunches, vendor visits and more.

But it’s not all food! SP Week serves as an excellent time to set aside for things like education, team bonding, and more than a little bit of fun. Hill explained a unique activity they opened up to anyone in the hospital to try out:

“We put together a mock heavily soiled case cart that was a mess. We actually shaved up red paper to simulate blood and we sprayed the pre-cleanse all over the inside of the cart. Then we had a piece of paper next to it that asked participants to name the six things that are wrong with this case cart and what is the right way. If they got it right, then they would win a prize.”

This activity, open to other departments, highlighted just how much sterile processing teams need to know and how critical their attention to detail is. It was safe to say that participants from outside of SPD had a tough time.

A few other activities SPD teams could consider doing in their departments include:

• Wrap contests
• Word searches
• “About me” cards to help teams get to know each other better
• Live or on-demand education sessions from an educator or vendor
• Dedicated times for technicians to complete CE-accredited content
• Scavenger hunts
• For more ideas, check in with vendors (like Pure Processing) for pre-made activities your team can take advantage of!

Managers can also take additional steps to show their team how much they appreciate them, as Hill outlined:

“I wrote thank you cards to everybody, the team gets goodies from vendors, we put together little gift bags. I bought everybody little notebooks that they can write in, and inside of them it said: ‘Always know what you do matters.’”

SP Week All Year

It’s clear that SPD teams appreciate having a week dedicated to their work and profession each year, but supervisors, managers, directors and other leaders can take steps to make teams feel appreciated all year long. Here are some of the ideas discussed:

• Make the department festive for holidays
• Schedule monthly potlucks
• Encourage socialization during downtime to help teams get to know each other better
• Use daily huddles to acknowledge your team’s good performance
• Encourage feedback from your team so they know they’re heard
• Find fun ways to recognize individuals for going above and beyond
  • (Pure Processing’s Citations for Being Awesome are a great, free way to get the ball rolling!)
• Surprise SP Week activities: every now and then, surprise your team with the kind of activity that normally only happens during SP Week, like wrap contests or scavenger hunts.

These steps don’t always need to be time consuming, either. Hill explained that it’s often the little things that let people know they’re seen:

“You know, even just keeping the break room stocked with things like paper plates, or coffee, or snacks; just the small things that they shouldn’t have to do or worry about, especially for the off-shifts that don’t have a cafeteria they can go to. Maybe writing those thank you notes a little more often. Call out birthdays and let people know that you care about them.”

Hill also added, “Try to find ways to spend time together outside of the department and get to know each other better. I know people have lives outside of the department and some aren’t interested in spending personal time with coworkers, but for those that are, try to help make it happen.”

Conclusion

We all look forward to SP Week every year. On the vendor side, we love celebrating the sterile processing teams keeping everyone safe and finding new ways to demonstrate our appreciation. For those in departments, doing the work, there’s a ton of reasons to celebrate SP Week.

As Hill explained, however, that sense of appreciation and excitement doesn’t need to be limited to a single week each year. Sure, it can’t be lunches and activities every day, but the things that make SP Week special, those moments of appreciation, bonding, and fun, can happen anytime of the year. You just need to start!

Interested in exploring other ways to show your team appreciation? Check out Appreciation: The Key to Retention