Opinion: 5 Practical Strategies to Prevent Sterile Processing Burnout

Opinion: 5 Practical Strategies to Prevent Burnout in Sterile Processing

In the high-stakes world of Sterile Processing, burnout and turnover are unfortunately common. However, there is the thought it is not inevitable. Our Clinical Educator and Auditor, Fred A. Westermeyer, CRCST, CIS, CER, CHL, LSSGB, CHEP, CHPM, shares five grounded, experience-driven strategies that can help departments build stronger teams, retain talent, and maintain professionalism without needing a massive budget or corporate overhaul. Following these SPD leadership strategies can help prevent burnout in healthcare and provide real SPD turnover solutions. 

Fred doesn’t hold back on the hard truths, but he also offers realistic paths forward for real SPD career development. Fred looks at the career ladder in sterile processing and helps address issues you might be experiencing such as SPD compensation issues, staff engagement in Sterile Processing and the necessary recognigion in healthcare. Some of this just might surprise you. Read on for the full article.

Summary: 5 Strategies to Prevent Burnout and Turnover in SPD

1. Rethink Compensation:

Pay complaints are usually a symptom, not the cause. By the time techs mention money, they’re often already burned out. Instead of just throwing money at the issue, Fred suggests building a career ladder that links pay increases to certifications and added responsibilities, making compensation meaningful and sustainable.

2. Build a Career Ladder:

Stagnation kills morale. When techs ask “What’s next?” and the answer is “Nothing,” they’ll look elsewhere. A structured growth plan is necessary, and delivering it through the lead tech, educator, or coordinator roles provides staff with a reason to stay and invest back into the team.

3. Prioritize Real Education:

Cutting corners and “that’s how it’s always been done” mentalities drive professionals away. Invest in structured training and ongoing development, allowing educators to focus on what they do best—building competence and confidence, rather than addressing last-minute call-ins.

4. Communicate Like You Mean It:

Burnout often starts when people feel unheard. Don’t just say you have an “open-door policy.' Listen to what they say. Use brief huddles, newsletters, or even tech-enabled options like podcasts to keep communication clear, consistent, and inclusive.

5. Recognize Your People Properly:

Forget stale employee-of-the-month boards. Real recognition is personal, timely, and sincere. A simple birthday shoutout or “good job” can go a long way beyond a cafeteria lunch. Focus on performance-based recognition, not popularity contests.

Fred sums up his opinion piece nicely with this quote:

"Our work is high-stakes and serious enough as it is—
don’t make it harder by neglecting your staff. It doesn’t take a massive budget to build a department people want to be part of. It just takes consistent, thoughtful effort.”
– Fred A. Westermeyer

Read the full content of Fred Westermeyer's blog post:

5 Strategies to Prevent Sterile Processing Burnout and Turnover

by Fred A. Westermeyer CRCST, CIS, CER, CHL, LSSGB , CHEP, CHPM 
Clinical Educator/Auditor  

It is often amusing to me how frequently I see articles or hear people discussing ways to prevent burnout and turnover in SPD. The only glaring thing is often the unwillingness to implement any of the recommendations to improve the situation. There is not anything new that can be said about how to improve morale and retention is SPD. You can, however, change your perspective.

First, one of the more common criticisms is about compensation in SPD. It has long been known that SPD technicians (along with many professions) are not compensated in accordance with the demands and skills required to perform the work. I believe you know if you are compensating your staff effectively or not. If that is not so, a good place to start is how long it takes to fill vacancies and how long new hires stay on after orientation. If the only candidates you have lack experience, and leave after six months to a year, then you have compensation or culture problems. The funny thing is money usually doesn’t solve the problem. By the time your techs are complaining about pay they are already burned out. I have seen many managers fight for a meager pay increase only to still have their staff leaving because of bigger issues.

A better strategy might be to link compensation with additional certifications, and job responsibilities. It is often easier to justify to HR and the C-suite that if you build a career ladder based on increasing levels of certification, experience, and additional responsibilities, that a pay increase is justified. This way there is something for the company and the technician.

This leads to the second recommendation. Which is still a career ladder. In many hospitals you take a new technician and in 18 months they are experienced enough to work independently most of the time. During that time or after, they get a certification and maybe a pay increase. Then what? If they are not asking themselves “what next?” they will be sooner rather than later. Not every department has the means for a large leadership team with supervisors and lead technicians on every shift and manager or director for the department.

If you have a department where you’re the manager, supervisor, educator, instrument coordinator, and lead tech all in one what does that say to your staff about their job outlook. If you only have one or two lead techs who have been in the role for over a decade, how much hope does your staff have to advance their position. A well-structured career ladder can provide you with a pathway to build a better trained, engaged, and well-seasoned team. While also giving you a pool of ready candidates for when that lead tech retires or the supervisor moves on to a new position and you must fill their role. You can also use these specialist technicians to take the burden off the manager, or supervisor and give them some of the responsibilities of quality assurance, instrument coordination, and even education.

Third, education is often listed as one of the most critical areas of improvement for an SPD. Everyone likes to know how to do the job, but often our departments fall into a cycle of work arounds, short cuts, and attitudes of “that’s how it’s always been done”. It has often been a joke of mine, that when I hear someone say “we don’t take shortcuts” during training, I know I am about to see something interesting indeed. These things are noticed by our staff as well, especially once they get certified. Can you blame them for getting burned out. They go through orientation, certification, go to a local or national conference (sometimes on their own dime). Then when they suggest something or ask a question it gets shut down with “that’s how it’s always been done” or “I’ve never heard that before”.

If you want to have an engaged, and professional team you need an education plan. Educators often are the ones who take care of the things that fall through cracks between frontline staff and managers. They have the time when used appropriately to focus on projects and development that management usually doesn’t. On that note stop misusing your educators if you have them! Yes, if there is an emergency they must come on the floor and work at a station. Yet just because one person called in or there are add-ons, stop taking them away from their work that quite frankly most don’t understand or want to do. Regardless, making sure your staff are trained and competent (which are two different things) will help them want to remain a part of your team for longer.

The fourth suggestion is to take the time to effectively communicate. With multiple generations, genders, and ethnicities that make up our departments, communication is more critical than ever. A lot of time when staff get burned out it is because they have no voice, and they are kept out of the loop. I still hear a lot of people in our industry saying things like “I don’t baby my staff” and “I don’t have time for that”.

Having been brought up through the sink or swim method of training in SPD myself, I will admit it was effective for its time. It made impressive and competent staff. The only thing that was more impressive was the number of people we chewed through to make that staff. If you don’t take time to listen to your staff and meet them where they are when it comes to training and expectations, then you have no one to blame but yourself when they leave. No one ever said you had to agree with them, but you should listen. I always make the point of listening and following up with my staff regardless of my own personal feelings on their concerns. I also emphasize during training not that we have an open-door policy, which really doesn’t mean much, but rather that your concerns will always be heard. You may not like the response, but they will be heard and considered. In my experience my staff have responded well to that. Huddles of course are something that should always be done. It doesn’t have to be a huge thing. Five to ten minutes tops but taking that time to make sure everyone is on the same page (for all shifts) is crucial and often saves more time than it wastes. You should consider department newsletters, and possibly even podcasts. There is more than enough technology with AI out there that one can create an endless amount of podcast style presentations to give to your staff that they can listen to on their own time.

The fifth and final point has to do with recognition. I didn’t save it last because it isn’t important, but rather I have found it the least impactful and most poorly done. Too often I see department whiteboards with employees of the month photos that are six months old. SPD week celebrations that consist of a week of in-services and a lunch provided by the hospital cafeteria. If that is the level of effort you put into recognizing your employees, how much effort should they put into caring about your department. It doesn’t always have to be a big to-do either. Start small by remembering every employee’s birthday and recognizing it when it comes up. As an educator I made a point to have a questionnaire during onboarding that listed their birthday, favorite snacks, restaurants, etc., so the information was available for the managers when they needed it. I also sent calendar notifications and reminder emails for staff birthdays, marriage and work anniversaries to the entire leadership team every year (it takes less than an hour a year).

I personally don’t like employee of the month practices. I find they are a popularity contest that tends to draw more resentment than good will. Instead, I focus on recognizing performance. The key is to be fair and equitable, which means yes you must recognize when that frustrating employee does a good job as well. Again, it doesn’t have to be a big deal. Often, a “well done,”or well-placed candy bar (off the floor, of course) is more effective than a big announcement. Save the decorations and fireworks for big events such SPD week and when your staff does something very impressive as a team.

As I mentioned in the beginning, I doubt that I have said anything that hasn’t been said before. However, I still find it interesting how leaders and departments that are not willing to put a little bit of effort into their staff will complain the most when they leave and can’t be replaced. It doesn't have to be a big production as that usually comes off as insincere. Remember, our work is high-stakes and serious enough as it is, without making it more so with how we treat our staff. We should be working just as hard as we do for patients when we try to make our departments enjoyable, professional places to work.

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Bonus Recognition Message Ideas:

Not sure what to say for recognition messages? Here are some thoughts:

Formal but Appreciative:

Presented to [Name] in recognition of your outstanding attention to detail, commitment to quality, and the critical role you play in keeping patients safe. Your work makes a difference every single day.

Fun and Encouraging:

For never skipping a step, never missing a tray, and always keeping it clean, safe, and sterile—thank you for being a true SPD superstar!

Team-Focused:

In appreciation of your consistent support, teamwork, and the positive impact you make on your fellow techs and the patients we serve.

Role-Specific:

Whether it’s mastering the peel pack, leading the tray count, or showing others how it’s done—you raise the bar in Sterile Processing every shift.