Meet the Faces of GSDM: Doreatha Martin, Central Sterilization Manager
Doreatha Martin rarely rests. When she isn’t meticulously sterilizing instruments to ensure patient safety or packaging student instrument kits for daily distribution, she has her cell phone by her side, in anticipation of a call from a GSDM faculty member or a Central Sterilization colleague. She joked that the only time she wouldn’t answer her cell phone is if she was out of the country.
As central sterilization manager, Martin oversees day-to-day operations for Central Sterilization and the dispensaries. This includes ensuring that the Central Sterilization team is following safety and sterilization protocols to process all dental instruments according to the Center of Disease Control guidelines, maintaining inventory levels for all supplies, and guaranteeing that all student- and resident-owned instruments are returned to their rightful owners. She also assists during student licensure exams throughout the year, making sure they have all the necessary instruments.
“My days are pretty busy,” Martin said.
Martin has been at GSDM for nearly a decade. She came to GSDM with the vision of having a “retirement job,” previously having worked for over 30 years in hospital sterilization departments where she was on call 24 hours, seven days a week. She said she is now hitting her stride at GSDM.
“I saw this [job posting] and I said, ‘I never knew they had a sterilization department at a dental school,’” Martin said. “I applied and I got the position, but I started off in a dispensary because I didn’t want a supervisory position. Then, I realized I wanted to get back into management because I had a lot to offer.”
Even though she is not on call 24/7, Martin is willing to work long hours. During the week, she typically arrives around 6 a.m. to help prepare the dispensary and sterilization areas for opening, allowing students to pick up their equipment. She occasionally comes in on the weekends to work on special projects, such as conducting an inventory of hand pieces.
Martin said she makes sure all patient treatment centers—both pre- and postdoctoral—are appropriately staffed. She also assists with distributing instrument kits at each bay throughout the building and conducts data collection.
“If a student has three back-to-back scheduled meetings with patients, we have to make sure that if they use their handpieces then we have handpieces that we could give them to make sure that they could see all day for all the patients,” Martin said.
Two of the accomplishments at GSDM of which she is most proud are creating an inventory control sheet to prepare for CDCA examinations and facilitating a smooth return to patient care after the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I think those are some of the good moments because I didn’t have anything to go by,” Martin said. “I had to use my own vision of how to do it and how it set up.”
Her ongoing philosophy for her work is simple: Open communication and readiness. She keeps her cell phone on her so people can reach directly and quickly for any work-related question.
“I’m hands-on,” Martin said. “I believe that if you have an issue to address, address it right then and there.”
Martin said she still has more she wants to learn with her “retirement job.” She plans to expand her financial knowledge base and continue to create, review, and update standard operating procedures.
“Whenever I do leave, whoever comes in will be able just to go right into it,” Martin said.