Key Points
- PCTs give hands-on care under nurse and physician supervision: bathing, feeding, vital signs, EKGs, and blood draws in hospitals, dialysis centers, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes.
- Program length varies widely; the programs on this page run 45 weeks to 12 months, and NHA also accepts one year of supervised PCT work in place of a program.
- The NHA's Certified Patient Care Technician/Assistant (CPCT/A) exam is NCCA-accredited and costs $169; NCCT and AMT offer accredited alternatives.
- PCTs can specialize in telemetry, dialysis, emergency room, or rehabilitation and behavioral care, and federal rules require dialysis technicians to certify within 18 months of hire.
- Pay tracks BLS data for orderlies and nursing assistants, a median of $38,290 to $42,260 in May 2025, with government and nursing-facility jobs paying above hospitals.
What Is a Patient Care Technician?
A patient care technician is an unlicensed healthcare support worker who provides direct, hands-on care under the supervision of registered nurses and physicians, combining nursing-assistant duties with EKG and phlebotomy skills. New Jersey's state career page describes the role as a cross between a CNA and a medical assistant.
Most PCT jobs sit in hospitals. BLS reports that 86% of orderlies, the occupation where the PCT title is filed, work in hospitals, where PCTs staff medical-surgical floors, telemetry units, and emergency departments. Dialysis centers, rehabilitation facilities, and nursing homes make up most of the rest.
What Does a Patient Care Technician Do?
A PCT's day combines personal care with clinical tasks that CNA training does not cover, such as running EKGs and drawing blood. The mix depends on the unit, the employer, and state rules on what unlicensed staff may do.
Daily duties include:
- Assisting patients with bathing, dressing, toileting, and eating
- Measuring and recording vital signs, including blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and oxygen saturation
- Performing EKGs and phlebotomy (venipuncture) when trained and permitted by the facility
- Helping with medication administration only where state rules and training level allow it, as BLS notes for nursing assistants
- Updating patient records and reporting changes in condition to the nurse
- Transporting patients by wheelchair or stretcher and setting up equipment
The personal-care half of the job is physical: turning, repositioning, and transferring patients many times a shift. BLS also notes that nursing assistants and orderlies may work nights, weekends, and holidays, because hospitals and care facilities staff around the clock.
Types of Patient Care Technicians
PCT roles split into four common specialties, and the specialty follows the unit you work on rather than a separate degree.
Telemetry Technician
Telemetry PCTs work on cardiac and step-down units, where they attach leads, watch heart rhythms on monitors, and flag changes to the nurse. EKG skill is the center of the job, which is why programs such as Berkeley College's certificate also prepare graduates to pursue the Certified EKG Technician (CET) credential.
Dialysis Technician
Dialysis PCTs prepare machines, monitor patients during treatment, and respond to complications in outpatient dialysis centers. It is the one specialty with a federal certification clock: under 42 CFR 494.140, dialysis patient care technicians need a high school diploma or equivalency, a facility-approved training program, and a state or national certification within 18 months of hire.
Emergency Room Technician
ER technicians support emergency department nurses with intake, vital signs, EKGs, specimen collection, and patient transport. The role leans on the phlebotomy and EKG skills PCT programs teach, at an unpredictable pace.
Rehabilitation/Behavioral Technician
Rehabilitation PCTs help patients regain mobility after surgery, stroke, or injury, assisting with transfers, walking, and therapy exercises. Behavioral health technicians work in psychiatric units and residential programs, where observation, safety checks, and de-escalation matter more than procedures.
How to Become a Patient Care Technician in 5 Steps
The steps run in order for a reason: certification eligibility depends on finishing an approved program or logging supervised work first, and the credential a job requires depends on the setting.
Step 1: Earn a High School Diploma or GED
A high school diploma or GED is the entry requirement for every PCT certification body, including NHA, NCCT, and AMT. Programs add their own conditions. At CT State Community College, for example, PCT applicants must be at least 18, hold an active Certified Nurse Aide certificate, and submit a physician-signed health form for the clinical option; a background check may also be required.
Step 2: Enroll in a PCT Training Program
Program length varies widely. The programs on this page run 45 weeks at Berkeley College (a 30-week option is pending regulatory approval) and 12 months at Ultimate Medical Academy, while shorter options exist, such as CT State's 128-hour and 238-hour certificates. Coursework covers medical terminology, vital signs, infection control, EKG, and phlebotomy; Berkeley's certificate also prepares graduates to pursue Basic Cardiac Life Support for Healthcare Providers, a CPR-level credential.
Decide where you want to work before you choose a program, because the setting sets the credential:
- Nursing homes: Under federal rule 42 CFR 483.35, Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing facilities cannot use anyone as a nurse aide for more than four months without a state-approved training and competency program, and must verify the state registry first. A nursing-home PCT job runs through CNA certification.
- Hospitals: No federal aide rule applies, so each hospital names its own requirement. NHA's 2025 Industry Outlook reports that 96% of employers require or encourage certification for patient care technicians, which is why a national credential such as the CPCT/A carries weight here.
- Blood draws in California or Washington: California requires anyone drawing blood who is not a licensed physician, nurse, or clinical lab scientist to hold a CDPH phlebotomy certificate (CPT I covers venipuncture), and Washington issues a Medical Assistant-Phlebotomist credential for the same task.
Some large employers pay for PCT training after hiring or offer paid on-the-job training or an apprenticeship, according to My Career NJ, New Jersey's state career site.
Step 3: Complete Clinical Hours
Clinical hours are set by the program, not by a national rule. Ultimate Medical Academy's Clearwater diploma includes 180 hours of supervised on-site externship, AMT's competency-based certification route requires a 300-hour program with at least 120 clinical hours, and CT State's PCT clinical experience is a 24-hour component. NHA sets no clinical-hour minimum; it requires a completed program or supervised work experience.
During clinicals you practice venipuncture, EKG lead placement, vital signs, and patient transfers on real patients under a nurse's supervision.
Step 4: Get Certified (NHA CPCT/A Exam)
The Certified Patient Care Technician/Assistant (CPCT/A) exam from the National Healthcareer Association is NCCA-accredited and costs $169. You qualify with a high school diploma or GED plus either a PCT program completed within the last five years, or one year of supervised PCT work in the last three years (two years in the last five).
What to expect:
- 100 scored items plus 20 unscored pretest items in two hours, per NHA's test plan
- 45 items on patient care, 20 on compliance, safety, and professional responsibility, 11 on infection control, 14 on phlebotomy, and 10 on EKG, with a scaled passing score of 390 set in NHA's candidate handbook
- Testing at your school, a PSI testing center, or through live remote proctoring
Certification is valid for two years; renewal costs $195 and requires 10 continuing education credits. One timing note: NHA launches an updated CPCT/A exam on January 13, 2027, with new study materials available October 7, 2026.
Two other NCCA-accredited options exist: NCCT's National Certified Patient Care Technician (NCPCT) exam costs $119, and AMT's Patient Care Technician (PCT) certification costs $150, including the first annual fee.
Step 5: Apply for PCT Jobs
Employers use several titles for the same job, so search for patient care technician, patient care associate, patient care assistant, and nurse technician. Hospitals employ the largest share of PCTs; dialysis providers such as DaVita and Fresenius Kidney Care, rehabilitation hospitals, and nursing homes make up the rest.
List your clinical hours, BLS certification, and EKG and phlebotomy competencies on your resume, since those two skills distinguish PCT training from CNA training.
Compare patient care technician programs on Dreambound to see which ones bundle EKG, phlebotomy, and BLS training before you commit to a start date.
How Long Does It Take to Become a PCT?
Becoming a PCT takes anywhere from a few months to a year, and the program you choose sets almost all of that time. Berkeley College's certificate runs 45 weeks, Ultimate Medical Academy's diploma runs 12 months, and shorter certificates exist, such as CT State's 128-hour option.
The exam adds days, not months: you apply online, pick a date, and NHA posts online results within two days of scoring. If you already work in patient care, NHA's experience route lets you skip the program after one year of supervised PCT work.
PCT Salary: Is It Worth It?
BLS does not track patient care technicians as a separate occupation, so the honest baseline is the two occupations it files them under. O*NET lists "Patient Care Technician (PCT)" as a reported job title for orderlies, whose median annual wage was $38,290 in May 2025 ($18.41 per hour), while nursing assistants, the closest hands-on comparison, earned a median of $42,260 ($20.32 per hour). Both sit below the $50,980 median for all workers.
Where you work moves the number more than the title does. BLS May 2025 medians for nursing assistants by setting:
- Government: $47,050
- Nursing care facilities: $43,000
- Hospitals: $42,310
- Home healthcare: $38,040
State data can run higher: My Career NJ lists New Jersey PCT pay from $44,910 at entry level to $47,490 with experience. NHA's 2025 Industry Outlook adds that 74% of employers surveyed increase pay when an employee earns a professional certification.
Demand is steady rather than surging. BLS projects employment of nursing assistants and orderlies to grow about 3% from 2025 to 2035, with about 203,300 openings a year, most of them replacing workers who leave the field.
Whether the role is worth it depends on what you want from it. As a first clinical job, the trade is a few months of training for a role with steady openings. As a long-term income ceiling, the medians sit below the all-worker median, which is why New Jersey's career page frames LPN and RN programs as the next step for PCTs who want to move up.
For state-by-state figures, see the patient care technician salary guide.
Featured Patient Care Technician Programs on Dreambound
Dreambound puts PCT programs from schools across the country on one page so you can compare them side by side before you apply. The listings below cover New Jersey, Texas, and Florida.
