CSSD Technician

The CSSD Technician programme trains the person a hospital sterile services department depends on: the one who takes a contaminated instrument set, turns it around safely, and signs the record that says the load was right.

What the programme covers

Decontamination and manual cleaning, inspection and function testing, packing and wrapping to the correct standard, loading and running the sterilisers, and the documentation that follows every set. Infection prevention runs through the whole programme, because in a sterile services department it is the work and not a topic beside it.

How it is taught

Sixteen two-hour sessions at the school's Abu Dhabi campus, with the bench work in the skills lab: the washers, the sealers and the autoclaves are handled, not described. Students are assessed on the sequence as they perform it, which is how a department will ask them to work.

Where it leads

Sterile services in a hospital or a day-surgery centre, and the CFER programme for the student who goes on to flexible endoscope reprocessing.