Required Hours of Experience
How many hours of hands-on experience are required?
200 hours of experience must be completed in a Sterile Processing department (SPD), on a paid or volunteer basis. These hours must be completed before testing. Hands-on experience provides an invaluable resource with which to better understand the standards, knowledge, and practices needed to be successful in an SPD and on the exam.
A breakdown of the hours requirements will be coming soon.
Please be aware that HSPA does NOT provide placement services. It is your responsibility to find a department in which to complete your hours.
If you are unsure whether your department is authorized to sign off on your hours, please complete our form request using the button below:
What is the rationale for requiring these hours?
HSPA believes that both training and experience for entry into practice contribute to the delivery of quality patient care.
Verification of Requirements
Hands-on experience is required for your examination, and documentation of that experience must be provided on the exam application as indicated. No other documentation is necessary or acceptable.
The sections of your application documenting your experience must be completed by your department’s immediate manager/supervisor. An individual may never document their own experience.
Provided they are in a position above your own then experience hours can be documented by:
- Lead technicians, coordinators, or supervisors
- Managers, chiefs, directors, or administrators
- Hospital-based educators or trainers
Hours cannot be documented by technicians or private instructors. In order to verify experience, all contact information provided for the manager or supervisor documenting your hours must be current or your application will be rejected.
Hands-on hours can be accumulated on a paid or volunteer basis and you need not be currently employed or volunteering with a facility in order to test.
Applications requiring hands-on experience may be subject to verification before processing. Once selected for verification an application cannot be processed further until the manager/supervisor documenting the applicant’s hours of experience can be contacted and the experience confirmed. If the listed manager/supervisor cannot be reached for confirmation the application will be returned, unprocessed. If the manager/supervisor is reached but refutes the information submitted in any way, the application will be sent to the Certification Council for further investigation and review.
Applicants who have submitted a completed application and who are notified that they do not meet the eligibility requirements may appeal this decision by sending a written notice of the appeal to the Certification Council within 30 days of the time stamp on the eligibility decision. Appeals that cannot be resolved to the applicant’s satisfaction will be forwarded by the Certification Manager to the Certification Council for review along with any relevant information from the initial review of the application. Written notice of the final decision will be sent to the applicant within 30 days of the review. The decision of the Certification Council will be final.
Content & Composition of the Exam
Exam Content Outline
The CIS exam will test your proficiency in the following areas:
- DECONTAMINATION PROCESSES
- Instrumentation Identification
- Instrumentation Inspection, Testing, Integrity and Assembly
- Preparation and Packaging
- Disinfection and Sterilization Processes
- Quality and Information Systems
Each of the six knowledge domains listed above is comprised of a series of sub-domains which are explained in further detail in the CIS Exam Content Outline (updated October, 2024). The Content Outline also describes further detail on the type and amount of content covered in each section, as well as its weight on the certification exam.
Exam Structure
- The exam is computer-based and no writing instruments are needed (a written version of the exam is not available)
- The current version of the test is comprised of 150 multiple choice questions
- You will have three hours in which to complete the exam
- Questions can be marked for review and answered or changed later in the exam
- A 15-minute tutorial describing how to take the exam on the computer precedes the test and is also available online, below