A patient care technician gives hands-on care to inpatient, swing bed and ER patients, working at the direction of the RNs. In a small rural hospital the job covers vital signs, help with bathing, meals and walking, and blood draws and EKGs where trained, and the tech tells the nurse right away when something seems off.
By the HireBus team · Updated · Pay data: BLS, May 2025
We're hiring a patient care technician to give hands-on care to inpatient, swing bed and ED patients under the direction of RNs. You'll take vital signs, help patients bathe, eat, walk and use the bathroom, draw blood and run EKGs where trained and allowed, and tell the nurse right away when something seems wrong.
2. Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Take and record vital signs, weights, intake and output, and fingerstick glucose checks in [your EHR].
Help patients bathe, use the toilet, eat and walk, following fall precautions and diet orders.
Turn and reposition patients on schedule, and report skin changes to the nurse.
Draw blood, label specimens at the bedside with two identifiers, and run EKGs where trained and your state and hospital allow.
Sit with patients who need one-to-one observation, such as those at risk of falls or self-harm.
Clean equipment between patients, and stock rooms, carts and isolation supplies.
Respond to codes as assigned, including starting CPR and bringing the code cart.
3. Key Tasks / Daily Activities
Get report from the RN on assigned patients, activity orders and fall risk.
Answer call lights quickly and round on patients [hourly].
Help with admissions, discharges and room setup.
Take specimens to the lab with the right labels and requisitions.
Float to the ED to help with stretchers, EKGs and vital signs when it's busy.
4. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Vital signs recorded on time: [your target].
Call light response time: [your target].
Specimen labeling errors: [your target].
Turning schedule compliance: [your target].
5. Required Qualifications and Skills
Certified nursing assistant (CNA) certification where your state or hospital requires.
BLS certification, current or within [30] days of hire.
High school diploma or equivalent.
Ability to follow the nurse's direction, protect patient privacy under HIPAA, and speak up when a patient changes.
6. Preferred Experience
Phlebotomy or EKG training, or certification such as NHA's CPT, CET or CPCT/A.
Patient care experience in a hospital, nursing home or home care.
Experience caring for patients with dementia or behavioral health needs.
7. Physical Requirements
Stand, walk and bend for most of an [8 or 12]-hour shift.
Lift, turn and transfer patients up to [50] pounds with lift equipment and a coworker.
Push wheelchairs, stretchers and beds, and kneel for bedside care.
With or without reasonable accommodation.
8. Work Environment and Schedule
[8 or 12]-hour day or night shifts, with weekends and holidays on a rotation.
Work across the inpatient unit and ED as assigned.
Exposure to bodily fluids, infectious disease and patients who may be confused or agitated, with PPE and training provided.
9. Compensation and Benefits
Pay: [range and hourly or salary basis].
Additional pay: [overtime, bonus or incentive terms, or none].
Benefits: [health, dental, vision, retirement, paid time off, and when they start].
10. Company Culture and Overview
[Two or three sentences on what your company does, the area you serve, and the support a new patient care technician gets in the first 90 days.]
11. How to Apply
[Apply link or email]. Our process: [phone interview, in-person interview, and next steps]. Contact [hiring contact] if you need an accommodation during the application process.
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What patient care techs do differently in a small hospital
At a large hospital, phlebotomists draw blood, EKG techs run EKGs and transporters move patients. In a critical access hospital, one patient care tech may do all three between call lights, on the unit and in the ER.
Drawing blood can need a state certificate
If your techs draw blood, check your state first. California, for one, requires anyone who draws blood to hold a state phlebotomy certificate unless they are a licensed professional whose scope covers it, such as a nurse or physician. Where no such rule applies, the hospital sets the training and checks each tech's skill before they draw on their own. Source: California Department of Public Health: phlebotomy certificate FAQs.
Abuse rules follow swing bed patients
To be approved for swing beds, the hospital must meet part of the federal abuse and neglect rule written for nursing homes. It can't employ anyone a court has found guilty of abuse or neglect, or anyone with that kind of finding on the state nurse aide registry. An allegation involving abuse or serious injury must reach the administrator and state officials at once, within 2 hours at most, so a tech tells the nurse right away. Source: 42 CFR 483.12: freedom from abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Your neighbors are your patients
In a small town, techs care for people they know from school, work or the grocery store. HIPAA makes the hospital decide which staff need which patient information for their jobs, and make reasonable efforts to limit their access to that. Opening the chart of a patient you aren't caring for falls outside it, and mentioning who was admitted can cost the hospital the town's trust. Source: 45 CFR 164.514: HIPAA minimum necessary requirements.
The ER borrows techs when it fills
When ambulances stack up, a tech may go down to the ER to run EKGs, take vital signs, move stretchers and restock rooms, then come back to call lights upstairs. The best techs here move from a fast ER to the slow, careful help a swing bed patient needs with bathing and meals without losing patience in either place.
Specimens are labeled at the bedside
With a small lab and few staff at night, the tech who draws the blood may also carry it to the lab. Labels go on at the bedside, checked against two patient identifiers and the order. A mislabeled tube means a new draw and lost time, which matters most when the result decides whether a patient transfers.
How much hospital patient care technicians make
The closest BLS group for hospital patient care technicians is nursing assistants. Nursing assistants who work for general medical and surgical hospitals earned a median of $20.02 an hour ($41,650 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about the same as the $42,260 median for nursing assistants in all industries. About 442,820 of the 1,448,910 nursing assistants in that survey work for general hospitals.
An hourly wage plus night and weekend differentials. Some hospitals add a step for phlebotomy or EKG certification, or help pay for nursing school.
General hospitals
$41,650$41,650 median Middle half $37,830–$47,400 10th–90th $35,600–$53,060
All industries
$42,260$42,260 median Middle half $37,260–$47,220 10th–90th $33,940–$51,980
$20k$30k$40k$50k$60k
10th–90th percentileMiddle halfMedianAnnual pay, May 2025. Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics.
Annual pay by percentile
Group
10th
25th
Median
75th
90th
General hospitals
$35,600
$37,830
$41,650
$47,400
$53,060
All industries
$33,940
$37,260
$42,260
$47,220
$51,980
These figures cover general medical and surgical hospitals of every size. Rural hospitals often pay less than city hospitals. Post a real range for your market in the ad.
Skills to hire for, and what you can teach
Hire for these
Gentle, steady help with bathing, toileting and meals
Accurate vital signs, and the habit of reporting odd ones right away
Follows the nurse's direction and speaks up when a patient changes
Keeps patient information private, even about people they know
Uses lifts and safe transfer steps every time
Teach these on the job
Blood draws and EKGs, with any certificate your state requires
Your EHR flowsheets for vital signs and intake and output
Specimen labeling and lab requisitions
Your fall precautions and one-to-one observation steps
Code duties: starting CPR and bringing the code cart
PCTs chart vital signs, intake and output and turning times in the EHR, often on a mobile workstation, and use vital sign monitors, glucometers, EKG machines, blood draw supplies and patient lifts. If the job includes blood draws or EKGs, say so in the posting, and say whether you train for them.
Hospital patient care technician interview questions
They have their own page: 6 questions that test this job, what strong and weak answers sound like, and a work exercise to run with your finalists.
Set the template's blanks from a month or two of EHR and nurse call data. Review the numbers with the techs themselves, since a short-staffed shift shows up in every one of them.
Vital signs recorded on time
Scheduled vital sign checks charted within the window your unit sets, from EHR flowsheet times. Also count how often an abnormal reading reached the RN within policy.
Call light response time
Minutes from a call light to staff in the room, from the nurse call system's report if it keeps one, or from spot checks if it doesn't.
Specimen labeling errors
Specimens the lab rejected or flagged for a missing or wrong label, from the lab's rejection log, traced to who collected them and reviewed with that tech the same day.
Turning schedule compliance
Patients on a turning schedule who were repositioned on time, from EHR entries, checked against new skin problems the nurse finds.
Career path
Certified nursing assistantLearns bedside care in a nursing home, home care or a clinic.
Patient care technicianAdds blood draws, EKGs and ER work to bedside care.
Not quite. A CNA is certified by the state, usually after a state-approved program and the state's competency exam, while PCT is a job title. Many PCTs are CNAs who also draw blood and run EKGs. The federal nurse aide training rule, at least 75 hours with 16 of them supervised practice, sits in the nursing home regulations. For hospital techs, your state and your own policy set the bar, which is why the template asks for a CNA where your state or hospital requires one.
How much does a hospital patient care technician make?
Nursing assistants who work for general medical and surgical hospitals earned a median of $20.02 an hour ($41,650 a year) in May 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The middle half earned between $37,830 and $47,400 a year. Pay also depends on your local market, experience and overtime.
Does a patient care tech need a certification?
That's your hospital's call, unless your state requires one for a task, as California does for drawing blood. The National Healthcareer Association offers the Certified Patient Care Technician/Assistant (CPCT/A). To sit for it, a candidate must have finished high school or earned a GED, or be about to. They also need a PCT training program or supervised PCT work, within time limits NHA sets. NHA also certifies phlebotomy (CPT) and EKG (CET) techs.
Is patient care tech work a good path into nursing?
It can be. Techs learn bedside care, watch RNs and LPNs work every shift, and build references. If you want to grow your own nurses, offer tuition help, schedules that fit class times, and an interview once they're licensed. If you tie tuition help to a work commitment after licensure, put the terms in writing.
What does a patient care tech do during a code?
A tech with current BLS can start CPR, bring the code cart, run for supplies, and help move the patient or clear the room. The RN or provider runs the code. Hand out code roles at huddle when each shift starts, so nobody has to work it out when the alarm goes off.
