The Guarded Castle
The challenges with internship and hands-on training.
As a requirement, students seeking full CRCST certification need to complete 400 hours of hands-on training.
This has been challenging for self-study students and continues to be one of the biggest hurdles of entry to the “guarded castles” that students may face today. But how do you get your hours? How do you get into the castle and find the gold within?
Why the Guarded Castle?
Let us take a moment to understand why there are hurdles or, in this fun comparison, a mote, wall, armored knights, and possibly a dragon. In all seriousness, these reasons are, but are not limited to, location size, limited staff, liability requirements, and Covid-19 restrictions. Healthcare facilities are a complex environment, and new inexperienced students completing their externship can be contributing risk to operations and the safety of patient care experience. This does not discredit students’ capabilities; it is just the hard reality of the standards of a hospital.
The Experience Paradox.
What is the Experience Paradox? The Experience Paradox is a phenomenon that occurs when you have no work experience in a particular field, but the jobs require you to have a year or two of experience to be considered. This can be extremely frustrating, and in some cases, it can act as a deterrent to getting your dream job. For our topic today, the experience paradox and a location’s limitations (mote, castle walls, and drawbridge) can be discouraging for students wanting to get into the amazing field of Sterile Processing.
What can be done?
For anyone seeking to complete their 400 hours, or any externship in a healthcare facility, it’s recommended not to take this journey alone. From our experience, having the backing of a school can make a huge difference. For example, a self-study student walking into a facility, requesting to complete their hours may be viewed as a liability/risk, as outlined above. Locations may wonder, “What education have you completed? How was your engagement as a student?” Not knowing your journey to this point may be the reason that makes acquiring an externship difficult. Now, you take another student and back them with a school that has provided them the education, tools, and resources to navigate internship (grappling hook & armor), and that significantly increases their chances of getting accepted.
What CSS has done and continues to do.
Our team from the beginning has recognized externship as being one of the biggest hurdles students will face on their journey to CRCST Certification. This is why we continue to grow our network of facilities to help students complete their hours. As it stands today, CSS has built a large In-Network list of hospitals that are willing to accept our students. Our current affiliations are throughout the state of California, but relationships continue to grow. Students who attend our CRCST program will be provided assistance with externships at these partnering facilities. For locations outside (out-of-network), we provide our students with a liability insurance policy to assist them in finding a location of their own.
Becoming a vital member of the hospital can be challenging. Climbing the castle walls (internship) can be difficult, but Central Sterilization Solutions, with our years of experience, is here to assist you on your journey.
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