Parient care technician question

[exquisite20]

Hi everyone. I'm currently enrolled in school for the semester, but I wanted to take some time off during the summer to enroll in a CNA program. I do eventually want to take extra training to become a patient care technician so that I can also be able to work in the hospitals in my area (nyc). I find being a pct appealing because you get the opportunity to perform more duties such as blood draws, ekg monitoring, cpr, etc. Do you have to be a cna first in order to become a patient care technician, and do most employers require that you have experience as a nurse's aide before you can work as a pct? Also, are some hospitals willing to train cna's to become pct's? Your advice is appreciated.

[yousoldtheworld]

These things are different in every state, so your best bet is to look on your state board of health's website for information or call a local hospital's HR department and ask them.

Here, you don't necessarily have to be a CNA first, but it helps. The hospital I worked at offered PCT classes on-site.

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

Yeah I agree with yousoldtheworld it definately varies from state to state. In RI we have CNA I and CNA II which makes things even more complicated. CNA II can do blood draws, ecg and all that fun stuff and they usually work in hospitals, CNA I (or some places just CNA) usually work in home health or nursing homes and only assists with the ADLs. We do have PCTs in some places but its not too many, most of the time its just a CNA II in a hospital or Medical Assistants in a doctors office.

!Chris