What to Expect During Orientation for a PCT Position? (Please respond)

Nursing Students Technicians

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Hello All,

I am a senior nursing student graduating in May. After almost a year of searching and applying for Patient Care Technician/Nursing Assistant positions, I finally got an offer. My 3 day orientation begins this Monday! :uhoh3:

All I know is that the first day it will be held in a conference room from 7:30 to 4:30 p.m. The second day it's also in the conference room from 7:30 to 12:00 (Ethics) and then I report to my unit for the rest of the day. (?) And I don't know what the third day is.

I guess I'm just really, really nervous. Will they let me know everything I need to that first day? It says to dress business casual. I'm worried about scrubs, do hospitals sell them? Or will I have to buy them on my own? Can some of you share your orientation experiences with me?

Many thanks! :)

congrats! are you going to be a PCT or a CNA? 3 days for orientation doesn't sound like much....

I've worked at 2 hospitals... The first one was one week of orientation in a classroom setting. Going over how to do EKG's Blood work, transferring and moving pt's. The next few weeks we were on the floor with a precepter. After that we went to our shifts.

The job I have now was 1 week of classroom orientation again but this was more sitting and watching endless power point presentations about the hospitals policies and procedures. This was a much larger well known hospital, where we had to be already certified and have some experience to even get the job. The first hospital was on the job training.

The second week of orientation was spent 5a-1pm going around the job with the Diagnostic Techs. They are the ones that go around and do the blood work and EKG's for the entire hospital, except the ER (the only part of the hospital thats uses PCT's)

After that I was with a preceptor for a week and then thrown to the wolves. lol

Most hospital will provide you with scrubs once a year. The number of scrubs they give you depends on your status. (FT or PT.) Not all hospitals do this and the scrubs they provide usually suck so I would suggest finding out what color scrubs you will need and go get a few pairs yourself. My job has yet to give me scrubs, even though we all filled out the request forms....

good luck let us know how it goes!! :-)

Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I am also surprised that your orientation is only 3 days. I had classroom training for 5 days, and then weeks of training on the unit!

My hospital provides 3 sets of scrubs a year, but they weren't available (they have to order them) by the first day of on the unit training, so I bought scrubs from Walmart. And although I despise Walmart, their scrubs blow my hospital scrubs away in terms of comfort and style! There are a lot of scrub choices out there, but if you are like me (and you are, I'm ready to graduate in May too!) you are probably not rolling in money at this point in your life.

I would suggest to bring a lunch, snacks, coffee, etc for the first day. They might provide for you, but best to be prepared, and then you don't have to risk the cafeteria when you are starving. I treated the classroom training like class: brought my highlighters, organized everything into folders, etc. You will probably be doing a lot of paperwork the first day--that was my HR day.

Once you get to the floor, there will be good trainers and bad trainers. The good trainers follow the rules AND have learned time-saving tricks. The bad ones just try to save time. Just nod your head and say "Ok" if you are told to do something wrong, and then just do what you know is right.

Good luck and congratulations on your new job!

Thank you both for your lovely answers! I didn't get to start my new job this week. The HR person called me and said that there's a new orientation day on February 4th, so in two weeks. Apparently they hired a few more people during winter break and they're just going to train us all on the 4th. I was also told that it will now only be 1 day of orientation. :uhoh3: I'm hoping that means 1 day of HR orientation/paperwork and then I'll have a few days of orientation on the actual unit. I'm still extremely nervous about this job. It is on a neuro unit. I will also be doing my senior preceptorship in this hospital, but in their Cardiac ICU (which I am terrified about). I feel like I can't remember anything I have learned. I feel so unprepared. May God help me!

congrats! are you going to be a PCT or a CNA? 3 days for orientation doesn't sound like much....

I've worked at 2 hospitals... The first one was one week of orientation in a classroom setting. Going over how to do EKG's Blood work, transferring and moving pt's. The next few weeks we were on the floor with a precepter. After that we went to our shifts.

The first hospital was on the job training.

/QUOTE]

Please tell me - is it hard to get an on-the-job tech training job if a person has never worked in the hospital before? Or if a person has not had PCT, CNA, phelebotomy or medical assisting training? I'm thinking about applying for a tech position but I have had no training. I am a pre-nursing student with absolutely no experience in a hospital before.

I'd appreciate your advice. Thanks!!:coollook:

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