Do you have a love for helping others?
Do you wish you could work in the healthcare industry without having to attend medical school?
Sterile Processing Technicians work everywhere from clinics to hospitals to medical centers — without the eight years of school plus residency.
You could find yourself helping surgeons with their medical procedures by decontaminating and distributing medical tools.
Read on to find out Hawai’i residents should go about becoming an SPT.
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How to Become an SPT
The good news: In Hawai’i, you don’t need any sort of certification or higher education to become a Sterile Processing Technician.
The bad news: that doesn’t mean your high school diploma or GED will be enough to get you hired since the job market is so competitive.
The good news (again): The HSPA has been certifying people since 1971, so they have you covered as far as getting certified is concerned.
The Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA)
You can obtain your certification through one of the HSPA’s four levels of certifications:
- Certified Registered Central Service Technician (CRCST) – the base-level certification for SPTs
- Certified Endoscope Reprocessor (CER) – an endoscope-specific certification
- Certified Instrument Specialist (CIS) – an advanced instrument certification
- Certified Healthcare Leader (CHL) – a certification for SPT management
Once you’ve submitted a complete application (including all the required documentation and a criminal background check), you’ll be able to register to take the test of your choosing.
The HSPA provides the resources you’ll need to study up, from online courses to content outlines, reference materials to the HSPA’s Certification Handbook.
Certification lasts a full year from the date of your test, and can be renewed with a $50 payment and proof of continuing education courses.
Sterile Processing Schools in Hawai’i
Hawaii’s available Sterile Processing courses are pretty few and far between, but they’re still present.
University of Hawai’i Hawai’i Community College
For $3,290, you can attend a self-paced online Sterile Processing Course that provides all the materials you’ll need for the classes.
It even gives you a voucher so you don’t have to pay the application fee for the HSPA’s test.
The clinical portion of the course is in-person, however, and you will need a functional PC and reliable internet to complete the classwork.
Hawai’i Community College’s course is 190 credit hours in total, and enrollment is open, so you can apply at any time.
University of Hawai’i Kapi’olani Community College
Kapi’olani Community College offers a five-phase Surgical Technology course that includes both classroom instruction and real operating room experience.
Their program is officially certified by the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) and prepares students for the National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting’s (NBSTSA) national certification exam.
Though the course is a bit different from a standard Sterile Processing course, it’ll still get you exactly where you need to go in the long run, and then some.
Salary
On average, a Sterile Processing Technician in Hawai’i makes $47,328 a year.
However, with the right experience and training, you could potentially make over $53,000.
