Patient Care Technician – Helping different people with different tasks

In the healthcare field, patient care technicians (PCT) play an important role. They help healthcare professionals at hospitals, clinics, nursing homes and doctor’s offices. They are the helping hands of medical professionals. They work under the supervision of other professional like physicians and nurses.

A patient care technician assists sick and injured person with different tasks such as bathing, eating, grooming etc. They take vital signs and also collect specimen. They help physicians in several medical exams. They monitor the health of sick persons and take care of their medication.

Salary – Their salary is between 25,000 dollars to 40,000 dollars. It depends on their education, training and experience. Their median hourly wages are 11.74 dollars which may increase in upcoming years. Again, their hourly wages depends on their skills.

You can become a professional PCT after completing your training from a patient care technician school. These schools can provide you practical and classroom training in this field. They train you in:

• Vitals – Taking vitals such as temperature, blood pressure etc.
• Phlebotomy – Sometimes a PCT needs to collect blood samples for lab tests. That is why they are trained in phlebotomy, so that they can draw blood with different techniques.
• Preparing patients- They are trained in taking care of patients and preparing them for various medical treatments. PCTs take them in different rooms for examinations and tests.
• Medical Terminology – PCT also get training in medical terminology. It increases their knowledge of healthcare field and helps them in understanding the situation better.
• Specimen Collection – To identify disease or problem, various tests are done at hospitals. It is PCT’s work to collect samples for these tests. After collecting specimen, they deliver these samples at labs.
• Medical law and ethics – They are also trained in different medical laws and ethics.
• Anatomy and Physiology – They are trained in anatomy and physiology. It helps them understand their work and duties better. They know how to treat a person with a particular disease.
• EKG – These professionals are also trained in taking electrocardiogram. While taking care of people suffering from heart diseases, they must know about this procedure. They must know how to read electrocardiograms.

Before this training, you must become a certified nursing assistant (CNA). Your high school degree or GED is also required for it. You can also take National Certified Patient Care Technician (NCPCT) exam. After training, you can get job at hospitals, clinics and other healthcare centers. In the recent years, the demand of PCTs has increased rapidly.