NZ Sterile Services Association
NEW ZEALAND STERILE SERVICES ASSOCIATION
Te Ratonga Whakahoromata Taputapu o Aotearoa

Contact us

Please send all correspondence to:
NZSSA Secretary
Martin Bird
TSU Co-ordinator, Sterile Services, Dunedin Hospital
Private Bag 1921
Dunedin 9054

Email correspondence:
President -
Secretary -
Treasurer -


NZSSA NATIONAL EXECUTIVE MEMBERS

President
Aileen DerbyGarry Gorham
CSSD Manager, Auckland DHB
Building 32, Level 1, Auckland Hospital
Private Bag 92024, Auckland

Phone: (09) 307 4949 ext. 23418
Mobile: 021 938 846
Email: garryg@adhb.govt.nz

I joined Sterile Services in 1990 as a Storeman working for Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, Scotland. Throughout my time there, I moved through the ranks becoming a Supervisor then to the position of Stores and Transport Officer when the service was Centralised to include Tayside, Fife and Perth and Kinross regions, which at the time made use the only Centralised Department in the UK covering 46 Theatres.

During my time there, technology and legislation changed so much with the introduction of various UK and International Standards. I therefore gained an interest in the Quality side of this specialised field. In 1997, I trained to become an Internal Auditor for ISO Standards and assisted the Quality Manager in the implementation of ISO 9001. As I was keen to further my Career in Sterile Services, all the senior posts within Dundee were filled, and opportunities were limited, I applied for the vacant post of Quality Assurance Manager in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. Fortunately, I was successful in my application and this was the start of the road to ending up in New Zealand.

Again, Standards changed again and compliance to ISO 13485 needed to be achieved. I implemented a new Quality Management System and we gained the appropriate accreditation. 18 months after being in this post the Manager of the unit left to take up a new venture and I took my opportunity to apply for the Managers post. Again, I was successful and have been in a Managers Position since 2001.

During the time in Edinburgh, we took on the service to Supply St Johns Hospital in Livingston (22 Miles West of Edinburgh) ad at this time we became the biggest Unit in Europe, servicing 72 Theatres, Various Clinics, Health Centres, Dental and GP Surgeries.

Having started at the bottom, I am living proof that a career path is available within this specialised field. I now look forward to hopefully using my previous experience to the benefit of other departments.


Vice President / Executive, North Island Chapter
Shelagh Thomas
CSSD Manager, Hutt Valley DHB
Private Bag 31907, Lower Hutt 5040

Phone: 04 566 6999 ext. 2745
Mobile: 027 589 6473
Email: shelagh.thomas@huttvalleydhb.org.nz

I trained as a comprehensive nurse at Ninewells Hospital, Dundee, Scotland in the 1970's. In New Zealand, I completed a degree in nursing and postgraduate certificates in mental health and peri-operative nursing at Whitireia Polytechnic and Victoria University. I worked in mental health for several years then in 2000 took up a position as a theatre nurse at HVDHB specialising in general surgery.

My real crash course in CSSD operations was in 2006 as a Senior Professional Nurse in Mokopane South Africa, where I was on an 18-month leave from Hutt Hospital. It was here that I had to think on my feet and found myself developing a CSSD system of procedural guidelines and education for Mokopane Hospital staff, with the remote assistance of my colleagues back at Hutt Hospital.

On my return to HVDHB in 2008, I took up the role of Manager CSSD at the request of Myrna Tuya. It was a steep learning curve but one which I have relished.
I completed my Cert in Sterilising Technology in 2009. I am about to undertake the level 5 course in Sterilising Technology.

I am a strong believer in the education and up skilling of Sterile Technicians in order for them to be taken seriously as professionals and for them to become future leaders in their profession. I am grateful to have been re-elected onto the executive of the NZSSA this year. We have come a long way as a profession but we still have work to do to be truly recognised for our contribution to the patient's journey
I look forward to getting to know as many members as possible, and I will assist you anyway I can.


Secretary
Martin BirdMartin Bird
TSU Co-ordinator, Sterile Services, Dunedin Hospital
Private Bag 1921, Dunedin

Phone: (03) 470 9639
Mobile: 027 812 6064
Email: martin.bird@southerndhb.govt.nz

Hello, my name is Martin Bird and I work as a coordinator in sterile services at Southern DHB. I have been on the executive for two terms representing the South Island.

I gained the New Zealand Service Technology Certificate in 1997 and I am in the process off doing the level five advance sterilizing technology certificate at the open polytechnic .I have also completed the Foundation course in sterilization at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Adelaide, Australia, in 1998. I believe that education is an important part in the sterilization Industry as this is an ever-changing environment.

I am looking forward to being part of the NZSSA Executive for a third term.


Treasurer
Daniel PhillipsAlison Stewart
28 Brighton Street
Island Bay, Wellington 6023

Phone: (04) 971 4273 (HM)
Mobile: 021 209 8127
Email:

I have taken over from Daniel Phillips as the treasurer for the Association. In this role, I not only manage the finances of the Association but also the content of the web page and NZSSA memberships. Feel free to contact me in relation to any of these aspects of my treasurer role.

In my working life, I am the programme leader for the Sterilising Technology Certificate and Injury Prevention Certificate programmes provided through the Open Polytechnic. I started this role in 2011 and feel my 15 years in sterilising has given me a good foundation to support the students.

I look forward to being able to promote the NZSSA in my role as treasurer and be a part of the continued growth of the sterilising industry.


North Island Chapter Executive Members
Lorraine ArrowsmithTheresa Luke (Editor of Supplyline)
CSSD Technician
Southern Cross Hospital - Brightside
PO Box 26064, Epsom
Auckland 1023
Phone: (09) 925 4200
Email: pinkieluke@hotmail.com

I am excited to be voted in for my second term as an Executive Member of the North Island Chapter for the NZSSA and wish to take this opportunity to thank you for voting for me. As Editor of Supplyline, I hope my contribution will be beneficial to the aim of the Sterilising industry being accepted on a more professional level by colleagues and healthcare clients.

I started my career in Sterilising at Calvary Riverina Health Care (private hospital) in Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia in 2006. After being in Australia for 3 years, I became very home sick and decided to return home to New Zealand. And choose to work at Waikato DHB, Hamilton.

I have not looked back. In 2009, I graduated from the Open Polytechnic Sterilising Technology Course Level 3. I personally found this very rewarding, as I am proof that high school dropouts can be successful. I became a senior Technician at Waikato which was part of my professional and personal goal of encouraging uniformity in department sterilising standards and exceed expectations of my own personal development. Recently I relocated back to my hometown, Auckland and I am now working at Southern Cross Hospital, Brightside, Epsom.

I have had the honour of attending the NZSSA conferences and have had the pleasure to meet and get to know some of you personally. I hope to get to know many more of you over the coming years.


Jenny Carston
Team Leader, Sterile Services, CSU, Tauranga Public Hospital
Private Bag 12024, Tauranga 3143

Phone: (07) 579 8680
Fax: (07) 578 0719
Email: jenny.carston@bopdhb.govt.nz

I am currently employed as the Team Leader for the Sterile Services Department at Tauranga Public Hospital and have been in the Team Leader role since 2006.

I started working at Tauranga Public Hospital way back in 1996 as a sterile Technician and obtained my Sterilising Certificate in 1998.

In 2004 my husband and I decided we would like to move to Australia to see how the other half lived and that was where I got the opportunity to take up my first position as Team Leader in a Private hospital in Brisbane known as Sunny bank Private Hospital which was obstetrics hospital and had 5 theatres. After a few months I decided it was time to move on and try a bigger hospital which was Greenslopes Private Hospital which had 12 theatres and ran 24 hours a day 7 days a week.

After only 18months we decided to come back mainly for family reasons so that was when I was lucky to get a job back at Tauranga Public as the Team Leader.

Since being back we have moved into a state of the art department which is a far cry from our old department and with all the new technologies each area has been made easier for us all. Our latest project I have been working on with other staff members is getting a tracking system in place.

I have also got more involved with sterilisation through attending the Leaders Forum and Steam Meetings held by Kimberley Clark. I am also verifier for staff sitting the sterilisation papers through the Open Polytechnic. In 2008 I entered the Kimberly-Clark NZSSA Scholarship which I won a trip to Adelaide. I obtained my Sterile Service Technician Certificate of Registration in 2009 and am looking forward to my second term on the NZSSA Executive.


Christopher Mumford
CSSD Manager, Midcentral DHB, Sterile Service Unit
Level One, Palmerston North Hospital, Heretaunga Street, Palmerston North

Phone: (06) 350 8875 (direct dial)
Email: Christopher.Mumford@midcentraldhb.govt.nz

I am in charge of the Sterile Service Unit for MidCentral District Health Board (MDHB).
I grew up near Bristol in South Gloucestershire, England. After moving to Norfolk to undertake further education, I began working for Coral Racing Limited as a Trainee Manager. Within a short time, I was promoted to Relief Manager for the Norfolk region. When an opportunity arose to move back to my hometown to manage my own shop, I jumped at the chance. My shop was in a highly competitive area of the city and within six months, I had exceeded the hefty profit margins I had been set.

In 2003, I moved to New Zealand with my New Zealand born wife and decided it was the perfect opportunity to re-train in a new area. I saw an advert for a trainee Sterile Technician, read the job description and thought that it could be an exciting new career. I passed my Sterile Technology exam in November 2005 and in May 2011 I was promoted to the job of Team Leader after working as a senior technician for eighteen months.

MDHB has roughly 160,00 people living in its catchment area and primarily covers the Horowhenua, Manawatu, Tararaua and Rangitikei regions. It is also part of the Central Alliance, which is a collaborative agreement between MidCentral and Whanganui District Health Boards.

The Sterile Service Unit (SSU) mainly services Palmerston North Hospital, ensuring that all reusable medical devices are clean, sterile and fit for use in a timely manner. The SSU also provides sterile equipment for all mobile Dental buses, Lithoplasty buses, Dannevirke Hospital outpatients department, Horowhenua Hospital outpatients department and Horowhenua Child Oral Health.

I feel that education is a valuable tool for Sterile Technology and would like to see companies participating more in educating Technicians as I feel their specialist knowledge would be valuable in helping to expand our knowledge base and insight.

I feel that with all of the changes taking place in Healthcare, both regionally and nationally, including budget cuts and restructuring, that it is important for us to strengthen our support of each other to collectively increase our knowledge and experience, enabling all of us to attain the expertise we all strive for in our profession.


Kerry Nicholls
CSSD Manager, Wakefield Hospital
Private Bag 7909, Wellington

Phone: (04) 381 8100 ext. 5927
Mobile: 027 275 3603
Email: Kerry.nicholls@wakefield.co.nz

I have worked in the health sector for over 40 years starting as an Enrolled Nurse then Comprehensive Nurse and continuing to a degree in nursing with a focus on infection control. Through that time I have worked as a theatre nurse in public and private sectors, the last 11 years I have worked as CSD Team Leader at Wakefield Hospital. More importantly I have also completed the level 3 Sterilising Technology Certificate and I am a registered sterilising technician.

Over the years I have seen Sterile Services develop into a specialty that is both professional and respected by other health care providers, gone are the days where the naughty girls were sent to the clean room to count, bag and staple Raytex swabs ready for sterilizing and where nurses were sent when they were too old to scrub (of course neither of those situations applied to me!).

Even though sterilising has come a long way we should not feel complacent but instead realise that if we do not strive for continual improvement and development we will lose the hard earned gains we have made. I want to assist in that move forward.


Ellen Komene
SSU Co-ordinator, Waikato Hospital
Private Bag 3200, Hamilton

Phone: (07) 839 8899
Email: ellenkomene@hotmail.com

My name is Ellen, also known as Erana. I have had the pleasure of being elected by NZSSA Members as an Executive for the North Island Chapter for the 2012 -2015 term.

I started working in Sterilising in 1982 at Middlemore Hospital. I have since worked in this field in Hamilton, Tauranga, Australia, Saudi Arabia, and Wellington. My positions ranged from Floor Technician to Unit Manager. I am currently a Co-ordinator in SSU for Hamilton Waikato DHB.

Every Sterilie Services Unit I have worked for all have their own processes, procedures, raw materials, and technology. However, we all strive to achieve the same result, which is maintaining sterility standards.

I am very excited to work alongside other Executive Members to achieve and complete any goals or projects that I will be assigned.


South Island Chapter Executive Members

Cathy RackleyMark Casey
Theatre Manager
Southern Cross Hospital - Wellington
90 Hanson Street, Newtown
Wellington 6022
Email: mark.casey@southerncrosshospitals.co.nz

I entered in the National Health Service in Scotland in 1979 going on to undertake my nurse training and qualifying as a state registered nurse in 1983. On qualifying, I moved to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh to specialize in theatre nursing gaining a further qualification in this field. In 1989, I worked in the Middle East as a theatre nurse attached to the Saudi Arabian Military for a year before returning to the north of England to take up my first charge nurses post, which I held for four years. An opportunity then arose to manage a suite of operating theatres for the Saudi Arabian Royal commission which I undertook from 1994 - 96. It was towards the end of this period that I was offered the job of sterile services Deputy Manager/ Production Manager in Edinburgh Scotland.

Sterile Service provision in Scotland was beginning to go through major changes with the need to meet regulatory and quality requirements. As part of the management team in Edinburgh, as a regional service, I obtained certification to the then ISO 9002 quality management system which was a first in Scotland.

Throughout the late nineties I was closely involved with the planning and commissioning of a new state for the art fully compliant department, which would be part of the New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. During this period, I gained invaluable insight and experience in taking a plan and developing it into a fully operational service. Throughout the first decade of the millennium I along with others worked towards expanding the service and maintaining increased production as well as keeping the facility abreast of legislation and quality standards.

In 2011, an opportunity arose to take up a position in New Zealand as an Educator at Auckland City Hospital, which I commenced in July of that year. This role posed a number of challenges, which I have very much enjoyed. Recently I have moved to Wellington to take up the position of Theatre and Sterile Services Manager at the Southern Cross Hospital.

When the opportunity to become an executive member of the NZSSA came up I put myself forward as I saw it as another challenge and an opportunity to be part of the larger picture of sterile services provision throughout NZ. I am very pleased to have been accepted and look forward the being able to use my own experiences while a member of the executive. I believe that the association is very much about the members and that amongst the many issues facing us that of education and raising the profile of sterile services in New Zealand are high on the agenda.

I look forward to being a part of it.


Jill ParkerSue Woods (NZSSA Librarian)
TSU Manager, Burwood Hospital
Private Bag 4708, Christchurch

Phone: (03) 383 6836 ext. 99990
Mobile: 021115 4484
Email: sue.woods@cdhb.govt.nz

Hello, I am currently the team leader at Burwood Hospital Theatre Sterilising Unit. I have been employed here since 2003.

I started my career in Sterile Services at Christchurch Women's Hospital in 1997. This was a field of work totally foreign to me so I looked forward to the challenge. I sat and passed my qualification exams in 1998. While in the role of trainee technician, I quickly learnt to respect the knowledge that people in this field of work were able to retain and share with others.


I look forward to my second term on the executive committee and hope to be able to be a productive member of the committee. While on the committee I have the role of librarian.


Nicki Quested
CSSD Manager, Mercy Hospital
72 Newington Avenue, Maori Hill, Dunedin

Phone: (03) 464 0107 ext. 8891
Mobile: 027 482 3373
Fax: (03) 467 6646
Email: nickiq@mercyhospital.org.nz

I started my Sterile Services career at Southland Hospital in Invercargill in 1997. I undertook and qualified as a Technician in 1998 when the study was administered by the NZSSA and was exam based.

In 2006, I moved to Dunedin to take up a position of Senior Technician for Mercy Hospital. Mercy Hospital is a private surgical hospital with six operating theatres. The hospital has seen a lot of changes since I started in 2006 and should be commended for the recognition and investment they have made to our CSD some of which include surgical instrument inventory, increasing dept. FTE, acknowledging the need of an off the floor manager, and a current rebuild is underway and due for completion in Jan 2013.

I have been an Adjunct Tutor for the Open Polytechnic for the Level 3, Sterilising Technology course since 2009. I believe this to be an extremely important year for students as it builds the foundations for their careers as technicians.

After a 15 year study gap, I am currently sitting the Open Polytechnic level 5 Advanced Sterilising Technology Certificate which I have found to be a good challenge and has killed a few brain cells in the process! However, it will be well worth it when I have completed the course in 2013.

Being an NZSSA Executive member is a new adventure for me and I look forward to continuing the excellent work of past and present dedicated members and working with a fabulous group of people.


Sue Evans
CSSD Supervisor, St Georges Hospital
Private Bag 4737, Christchurch 8140

Phone: (03) 355 9179 ext. 8891
Or: (03) 355 1714 (direct dial)
Mobile: 027 373 2501
Email: Sue.Evans@stgeorges.org.nz

Following a restructuring at St George's Hospital in 2003, I decided to change tack and move from working in the Maternity Department as a night duty assistant to train as a Sterile Services Technician. I worked primarily in the Day Surgery Unit learning about instrument sets and the principals of sterilization.

I became a qualified Technician in 2005 (the last year of all those exams!) - One of the first Technicians in New Zealand to become registered. I continued to work at St George's Hospital as a Technician until 2007. I then moved to Burwood Hospital here in Christchurch and learnt all about Orthopedic sets.

The position of Sterile Services Supervisor became vacant at St George's Hospital in 2007 and I was asked to apply. I am still working as Supervisor of the Central Sterilising Department at St George's Hospital and feel I will be here until I retire.

Our unit services 9 Operating theatres and I have 18 qualified Technicians that report to me. I have verified four students to complete their NZ Sterilisation Technology course. We are at the planning stage of our rebuild, which will take place over the next four years.

I am, this year, studying for the advanced NZ Sterilisation Technology course, which is challenging and rewarding.

I view my time on the Executive as a great opportunity to network and gain knowledge from other very experienced Executive members. I am interested in raising our professional profile within the health profession and am very keen to see new standards up and running. I would also like to see information shared freely between NZSSA members, so all Departments in hospitals throughout New Zealand meet these new standards. This will then ensure that Sterilising Departments are seen as an integral part of the hospitals they service and are meeting the high level of professionalism expected.


 
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