COD offers Central Sterile Processing Distribution Technician Certificate

College of DuPage is offering a new Central Sterile Processing Distribution Technician certificate program this fall that prepares students to properly sterilize and distribute hospital instrumentation, supplies and equipment.

Recently approved by the Illinois Community College Board, the program provides students with the basic fundamentals of central processing. Kathy Cabai, coordinator of COD's Surgical Technology program, said her students studied instrumentation, but they wanted a class that would provide them with exposure to this field.

“Within the surgical services environment, there is a central processing area that houses all of the instruments used in an OR, ER or OB, including supplies and equipment,” Cabai said. “The area deals with decontamination, packaging and sterilization, and the technicians are lifelines in the proper preparation of these medical rooms.”

Cabai said the new course “Sterile Processing Distribution Technician” consists of work in the classroom and, more importantly, in clinical rotations. To earn the new certificate, students also must complete Health Sciences 1110 and either the Human Anatomy and Physiology sequence or the Anatomy and Physiology with Cadaver sequence.

Upon completion of the new course, students will be able to take the IAHCSMM certification exam and, if they pass, will be granted provisional certification pending completion of 400 work hours in a central sterile processing department.

“More hospitals are requiring that sterile processing technicians become certified,” Cabai said. “This is an excellent career opportunity for individuals and a huge addition to the Surgical Technology program, because students will learn instrumentation, sterilization and disinfection prior to entering the Surgical Technology program.”

For more information about the Central Sterile Processing Distribution Technician certificate program, call (630) 942-8328 or email cabaik@cod.edu.