Beyond Clean Canada: Coast to Coast: Leading MDR Education Across Nova Scotia

0:00the student comes in and they actually can piece the pieces together. As you know, it's such a big puzzle and, you know, you can read and you can, you know, think you know it all until you walk in and you're like, wow, I didn't expect this or I thought I knew that, but whoa, I do not, right? So to actually have some hands on is definitely the route to go. What if one conversation could save a life? What if one new process or new product could save a patient from surgical harm? Broadcasting from a hospital basement near you, you're listening to the Beyond Clean Canada podcast, the voice of medical device reprocessing from C to C to C. Each week,

1:02we spotlight the people, processes and products from around the country and the world that are disrupting our profession and helping you fight dirty. Every instrument, every time. Join us as we have the kinds of conversations that matter and give our industry the kind of voice that it deserves. And now it's time to go Trunorth Strong and Beyond Clean. Welcome back to another exciting episode of Beyond Clean Canada. It's me Stacey in your co-host Barry. So buckle up. Let's go. From the studios of healthcare HQ, you're listening to Beyond Clean Canada, the voice of sterile processing from C to C to C. Welcome to another episode of Beyond Clean Canada podcast, host

2:13by Stacey Giel and Barry Perkram. We're sponsored by Solventom and on today's episode, we are joined with clinical educator of MDR for the province of Nova Scotia, Tiffany Church. Tiffany, welcome to the podcast. Hi, thank you for having me on. My name is Tiffany Church and I am the clinical educator for all of Nova Scotia Health for MDR and I am the president for medical device reprocessing Association of Nova Scotia. Been a technician since 2009 and really, really enjoy my role being clinical educator and supporting our great technicians on the ground to provide some quality patient care for our patients here in Nova Scotia. That's great to actually be started in the same year, 2009. Awesome, that's cool. It only seems like days but it's been a lot

3:14of years. Yeah, it does, right? Yeah, it doesn't take long. Absolutely, absolutely. Time flies when you're having fun. That's what they say, right? That's true. Yes, true. Tiff, can you describe your role in primary responsibilities as a clinical educator for the MDR over in Nova Scotia? Yeah, so my primary role would of course be educating and sharing knowledge within medical device reprocessing. That kind of goes a long way. I am one educator for the entire province, which has its challenges, of course. So be being split into many different pieces throughout the province. But for most of my education, I deliver a lot of it online through teams and then some have some evaluation quizzes to follow up with the education to ensure there's some just to see what they're actually getting out of the education. If anything and why do I need to kind of develop to kind of support them later on? So the challenge is really just being one person,

4:19kind of supporting 300 plus MDR technicians. But my primary role is really developing that orientation, the training modules, the competency assessments, and ensuring that the staff have what they need to be successful in their roles as an MDRT. Awesome. Tiff, I think there's like 17 MDRAs in the province of Nova Scotia. How do you ensure consistent education and competency standards across such a diverse setting within the province? There is 17 different MDRs. That's just within Nova Scotia Health. There's also things outside of Nova Scotia Health that MDR is involved with and sometimes they reach out for support as well. So it can be a challenge and not only just the 17 MDR sites, there's lots of different clinics like Endo and Sisto and all of these other areas that are requiring support from educator and

5:20just processes in general to making sure that they're doing everything that they should be. And so it is a challenge to be everywhere at once and so utilizing some good quality audit tools and making sure that all of the competencies are uniform. So what competencies that's when I use tier and health facts will be the same thing I use in Cape Breton. And I use that for everybody. So it's the same platform. Yeah. The same platform. Yeah. Yeah, for our listeners, very antiphany or both East Coasters. So you two know each other from work. Yes. Yes. We work. Basically our whole first together. Yeah. I've had the pleasure of working with Tiffany for like, yeah, basically my whole career for like 20 years. And I just want to Tiffany, I just want to show to from a personal standpoint from me. You know what I mean? Just the personal and professional growth that you know that you've

6:24experienced in Uniting States. Now I have different guests on talking about the MDR career ladder. And I mean, you're just grabbing every rung on that. And I'm proud of you. You know, I mean, and especially to see that firsthand, it's yeah, I'm totally impressed with what you're doing and you know, keep doing what you're doing. But thank you so much. I appreciate that Barry. You know, we definitely have come a long way together with working side by side. And you know, being text together and then me moving on into some leadership roles. And it's been a really great pleasure to work alongside Barry. So I really appreciate the time that you guys have to to bring me on to this discussion today. Oh gosh, no, we're honored to have you for sure. Our previous guests, we would Barry talks about the career ladder. It was just our last guest that we went into like a little in-depth conversation about that, correct Barry? Yeah. Yeah. Calling Pam and Luke. Yes, such a good episode too. So two back-to-backed ones here, Tiff, you and our previous. So that being said, because you're only one person and you are trying to get

7:30yourself out to all these facilities, be active in all these platforms that are delivering education to all of our sterile technicians out there. What specific challenges do you encounter when providing education and support in, let's say, the smaller healthcare facility, sorry, were staff such as Unis often multitask and perform MDR duties? Yeah. So again, really just making sure that they have the resources available to them, because people don't know what they don't know. And so it's so important that we give them the basic knowledge and that they're doing what they should be doing. So really, a fair amount of leadership team on the ground that do help support in these areas. So when I'm not there, they can perform a competency performance assessment using the tool that I have created and develop so that they can kind of receive the same outcome. Obviously, there's some things that,

8:33you know, my observation may look a little bit different than Barry's observation. So there are few things there, but for the most part, the outcomes pretty well the same. And then if there needs to be a communication as to we need to increase education on a specific topic, then we can kind of come back and circle around that. We do have monthly meetings for all of our leadership team within MDR so that we can make sure we're sharing all of the things that need to be shared because we don't want to reinvent the wheel. Obviously, if one site is having difficult in one area, then another facility has had that probably the same issue. So how can we kind of help support in a system-wide way and not necessarily singleizing everything, right? So yeah. And you've already troubleshooted, let's say, an issue in another area. So it allows you, it's the what is the constructive criticism. So it allows you to take what that facility did.

9:37It's like, well, here's why they're having that error. So let's fix it here. Yeah. And we can learn from each other. Yes. Yes. There's a lot of learning from each other. We do a lot of round tables, especially in our management meetings because we do operate in four different zones. Then we all have different management structures. So we do run our areas slightly differently. And so hearing what Northern Zone might be doing really good at maybe here in Central Zone, we can kind of take some tidbits from them and utilize those and bring them back to our area in maybe Central Zone to kind of boost that up. So it's great. Yeah. Absolutely. Tiffany, you kind of touched on this with the audit on your last question. But when you return to conduct an audit and see that an individual who wants to struggle is now excelling in their MD or practices, how does that make you feel as an educator?

10:39I think it would make anybody feel really great about the job that they're doing because it's kind of that satisfaction or that verification that something you're doing is going well. So for me, I think just making a difference and helping the team to achieve excellence is really my role. And I love seeing when our brand new techs come in and they're really excelling. I always come in and try to boost them up and show them that, you know, we really care about the job that you're doing and just a pure fact that they care about the job that they're doing. I always preach, if you wouldn't want to use it on yourself, then we wouldn't want to use it on anybody else. And I feel like our techs really feel that, you know, and they really take that to heart. And which makes it a great healthcare provider as an MDRT, right? We don't get to see those patients. So if, you know, if they wouldn't want it used on them, why would we want to use it on anybody?

11:43Right? So our selves are family members. That's what we have to say. That's where the positive reinforcement really comes in to play, you know what I mean? Because like you said, we don't have that contact with that patient, but, you know, to have somebody in our circle, notice someone that's going above and beyond or is excelling or something like that and giving that compliment. Like, yeah, it is, it matters to that person, you know? Yeah, because what don't we hear, Barry? We only ever hear the bad things. We never hear the good things. We only ever hear when something goes from, not when something's right. I'm not too busy with the positiveness of going back and seeing team member excelling after an audit. What about the opposite when you see a decline? How do you approach the challenge in support that individual in an accountable manner? Yeah, so I think everybody learns in a different way. And so supporting that individual in a way that best suits them. Maybe they're having some language barriers. Maybe they're really just struggling on a way that someone

12:46showed them how to do it, but they don't understand the why they're doing it. So it's really situational, but really focusing on that individual, what do they need, making a learning plan so that they're successful and that we're providing everything that we can as an organization for them to be successful in their role. And it also comes down to, you know, their self-want and to learn as well. And so that's what we usually find out those things. Like does that individual have actual practice issues, knowledge gaps, or is it like a performance issue? Which would be kind of beyond me once it's a performance issue would be like something that the leadership team, the management team would have to kind of deal with that. But if it's a knowledge gap, then I would be taking the warning, kind of making sure that they that I kind of do what you kind to help them. Yeah, yeah.

13:47And that's where that accountability comes into play. I know, you know, you hear often, you know, there's not enough accountability, you know, within our team or within our structure. And, you know, it does exist, you know what I mean? So it's, you know, if it goes that far, you know what I mean? That, yeah, you know, you will be held accountable for that, you know. It definitely is accountability there. And it just needs to be documented appropriately. And that's that's really the key is documenting their progress and how well they're doing or how well they're not doing and finding the root cause is to what's causing the the practice concerns and then getting them to a place where it's successful for them to practice competently and safely for our patients. And no of scotia health has a incredible reputation for being very supportive in those diverse and search situations with individuals as well, right? So they want to help that individual

14:51succeed for their team and for the patient as well or for themselves. So on all levels. Yeah, everybody learns different. And it's, it kind of leads back to the whole like when a techist first going through school or taking the program, I'm such a huge advocate for clinical placement prior to with any course. Because there's colleges that they don't always require the clinical placement. And I'm in every tech that I've worked with has been amazing over the years, but you really see the difference when somebody comes out of school who has had clinical already as opposed to somebody who has not. And I can even put this back to when I did the course, Tiffany in 2009. I was in class doing a course. A lot of things with our programs are now online like a lot. And I remember in class like actually like being able to hold instrumentation in see it because I'm a very visual learner myself. I'm quick, like, but you show me I get to actually

15:52get in there and get it done. Not everybody's like that. So the resources that you, Tiffany are offering these people and making sure that they are up to their confidence is there is phenomenal. Like good job. Like congratulations. That's awesome. Thank you. Just to add on to that, I agree with you. Most courses are online and it is challenging. When you do have a course that has a placement, it really does make a difference because the student comes in and they actually can piece the pieces together. As you know, it's such a big puzzle. And you know, you can read and you can, you know, think you know it all until you walk in and you're like, wow, I didn't expect this or I thought I knew that, but whoa, I do not, right? And so different kinds of scissors. Okay. Yes. Exactly. So to actually have some hands on is definitely the route to go. I took the actual

16:54Purdue course in 2009. And so I didn't have the hands on. And so I just learned from the book. I did my course online and then you were just thrown into the walls. And yeah, and then you were just trained, you know, in 2009, the hiring rate was in as as frenzy. So like we had quite a good base of trainers. Lots of great resources. However, over the years, we've just all of our great seasoned staff are now starting to retire and really try to fill those gaps. And to fill those gaps and the knowledge has been a huge challenge. And I'm sure that's not just here in Nova Scotia. I'm sure that's everywhere really trying to fill those knowledge gaps and building up those

17:59because I mean, I would say probably 40% of our staff are less than five years of text, right? So significant, right? And so how do we make sure those staff get to the seasoned spot, right? Where they have the appropriate knowledge and education to be supported? Yeah. And I think a bigger umbrella of it, too, is a lot of people don't realize that, okay, so myself, Tiffany Berry, we are now the senior leaders of our groups, the ones that are like those. And to all of our legislators, we are not that old, okay? I know you can't see us, so we're not. But we are the ones that have been, and we were just talking about this at work the other day because you're right, Tiffany, all the boomers that were tiring. So all of us that were like the new fresh baby faces were now the senior staff. But it's like we have also been in this role a lot longer than the boomers that are

19:02retiring because people have to remember before there was MDR text, it was the nursing staff doing the sterilization. Yes. So we were veterans. We are veterans at this point. Yep. And you know, you guys just both kind of touched on that. And you know, it's all we're experiencing too in our MDR field is that growth and new opportunities, there's new rungs on that career ladder. You know, I know a Nova Scotia alone. We just had recently two assistant managers hired. And we've had two staff developers hired, you know, all from the MDR field. You know what I mean? So I think that's a phenomenal opportunity for people, you know, that like I say, want to grab that next wrong. I know Tiffany, even with the educator role, you know, you like you said, we've been doing it for a while. We used to see our ends actually doing the MDR educator role. And now, you know, we, you know,

20:04in the first one that took that on from the MDR field was Debbie Church. And you know, I just want to send a huge shout out to Debbie. I know you're listening to this one. And all but yeah, you've been a huge mentor to me. It had a huge difference in my career over the years. And I just want to thank you for challenging me on every level and making me the person and the tech that I am today. So thank you, Debbie Church. I'm going to have to talk for that one too, Barry, because I certainly wouldn't be in my role and in that same challenge without Debbie Church for sure. So thank you. So, Beyond Cleanse Next Guest is Debbie. She's had a huge positive impact on a lot of people over the years. That's Debbie, you're getting some big club here. Tiffany, what impact do you hope your work, both as your clinical educator position and the president of MDRANs, will have on the quality and safety of patient care and Nova Scotia? It has a positive impact. So, I don't only work within MDRR. I do a lot with primary health care

21:13and things in those lines as well. So, I really hope that, you know, someday we'll be working towards mandatory certification and ensuring that our MDRTs are doing the appropriate skills and job duties in relation to MDR tasks and that, you know, these utility workers or these other duties that these workers have, maybe they're going to be certified and they're going to be technicians and that will kind of help leverage our health care and the quality of our patient care within not only Nova Scotia, but just in a medical device you're processing in general. I personally think it's a huge responsibility for our organizations to withhold that mandatory certification. You know, we have, if you go to your hairdresser, they need to have their masters for hair styling and I really do think that, you know, we impact every single thing

22:13that a patient touches. So, our sterile products that we deliver every single day, they wouldn't have exceptional patient care and so, really just pushing that forward and I'm really leveraging the responsibility of our organizations and ensuring that our MDRTs are certified and have the best knowledge and are capable and are successful. Absolutely. To be the best that they can be. Kudos to Alberta and New Brunswick for mandatory certification. You're ahead of the game. Ontario as well. We have to have mandatory certification. Yep. Okay, three. Okay. Awesome. It's growing when you're more. Yeah, it's something that needs to be straight across the board because you like, you know, that Tiffany, like, to be a hairdresser, you have to go be certified to be just starting out there. A dental hygienist, you have to be certified. You have to have all these certifications for

23:15things. But yeah, it just completely blows my mind that for somebody who is the first and last line of defense for a patient on that operating room table, there's not mandatory certification. And Tiffany, what are your key goals and priorities for MDRTs during your term as present? Well, I definitely have some big shoes to fill. Becky White from our past, our previous president definitely put out a big bang at our last conference. So just really providing our education to MDRTs in Nova Scotia and beyond and progressing our MDR profession work towards that mandatory certification. I think those are my primary goals as as president of MedRans and just really making sure that we're offering scholarships and educational opportunities that help our diverse medical device reprosing technicians within Nova Scotia, the opportunity to grow and be better

24:18technicians at the end of the day. That's amazing Tiffany. Membership is in good hands. The board is in good hands. And yes, we had Becky on the first season of Beyond Clean and What a gem. What a gem. What a gem. What a gem. She was fantastic and I'm going to have her behind my back exactly as a team. As a team, we succeed and so we continue to succeed. That's right. Great team. So always looking forward to moving it along. That's great, Tiffany. That is great. Well, thanks so much, Tiffany. This was an amazing episode. I cannot wait to collaborate more with MedRans in the future and definitely help push that boat forward to getting mandatory certification. Awesome. Thank you.

25:20Hey, everyone. Just want to thank Tiffany Church for joining us. She's the clinical educator of MDR for the problems of Nova Scotia. Another great episode. And I want to thank Solventum for stepping up and sponsoring the Beyond Clean Canada podcast. And until next time, keep fighting dirty. Thanks for listening to this episode of Beyond Clean Canada, your source for MDR content, education and inspiration. If you enjoyed this conversation, we'd love to hear from you on the BCCA LinkedIn or Facebook page or anywhere podcasts are heard. Make sure to give us a five-star rating on your favorite app. And until we talk again, keep fighting dirty.