Conversations With the President: Arlene Bush on Education, Membership Growth, and the Power of Collaboration in Sterile Processing

Arlene Bush, CRCST, CER, CIS, CHL, SME, DSMD, CRMST, the 2025 President of the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA), has had a busy summer leading both her chapter activities and her role as academy educator at Lee Health. In this installment of Infection Control Today’s Conversation With the President, recorded in late August 2025,

Bush shared her reflections on education, membership initiatives, and the challenges facing the field.

“In my new role, I am the academy educator for Lee Health,” Bush explained. “We just recently celebrated a graduation last week, so that was pretty joyful, pretty interesting. It was my first graduation with Lee Health, so I didn’t know what to expect, but it went off without a hitch.” She noted the transformation she witnessed among students: “Some of them had never had any experience in sterile processing. And then 13 weeks later, they really have excelled in our industry. It’s nice to kind of see that transition.”

On the association front, Bush described the energy within HSPA. “We’ve had a bunch of chapter meetings… we are at like 65 chapters for HSPA, so that’s a huge number. We’ve gone up significantly in chapter participation as well as new chapters. We have some international chapters too—7 now—and we’re making a lot of movement there.”

Membership growth remains a priority. “We have 60,000 certificate holders and only 30,000 members,” she said. “Our members are those who can vote this year. They now get free lesson plans, reduced prices for testing, plus the networking opportunities. You’ll meet people you’ve seen on LinkedIn, and you’ll probably meet them in person at HSPA.”

Bush was candid about the challenges. “We have a lot of issue just kind of now with making our instructions for use achievable, getting end users on our AAMI committees…. We have a lot of work to do on the state side, like required certification and litigation we’ve been working on in Washington, DC.”

Despite the workload, she emphasized the importance of accessibility. “The membership is who put me in my seat, so I really am here to serve them. People know how to contact me. I’m reachable on LinkedIn. I’m on all social media platforms, and I think I’m accessible.”

Looking ahead, Bush is excited to continue teaching. “I like meeting with our new-to-the-industry, super green folks… seeing the new students is truly rewarding. That’s how we bring people up in this industry.”