Patient care technicians work closely with nurses and other health professionals to provide basic patient services. Are you an aspiring health professional considering pursuing a physician assistant (PA) program or other health degree program that requires paid hours of direct patient care as an application requirement? Acquiring these hours not only provides invaluable practical experience, but it also demonstrates your commitment and readiness for a career in healthcare. To help you navigate this path, let's discuss 10 common features that provide opportunities to gain the necessary experience. Clinical jobs provide direct patient care, while non-clinical jobs don't provide direct diagnosis, testing, treatment, or care. Clinical functions range from doctors and nurses to surgical assistants and allied health professionals.
Non-clinical roles include medical billers, transcribers, IT employees, human resources, and more. Associated health is the provision of health-related services that are different from those of medicine and nursing. Allied healthcare professionals provide services directly to patients or perform roles that support healthcare providers. While the term may seem new, the function has been an integral part of the health system for many years.
Responsibilities can range from making decisions about acute treatment to administering vaccines in schools. For example, a pharmacy technician will fill prescriptions and educate patients about the medications they are taking. This may include education specific to your field, such as learning new skills and procedures to help provide high levels of care. Physician assistants perform both administrative tasks, such as scheduling appointments, maintaining patient records, and managing billing and coding, as well as clinical tasks, such as taking patients' vital signs, preparing them for exams, helping with medical procedures, and collecting and processing laboratory samples.
Clinical functions often have face-to-face contact with patients for the purpose of diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care. If you're in imaging, you can take X-rays and perform other diagnoses to help the medical team diagnose and treat patients. Because of the wide range of specialties and complex skills of the nursing profession, each nurse will have specific strengths, passions and experience. This ensures that all patients, from the city hospital to the community health center, from state prison to summer camp, receive the best possible care regardless of who they are or where they are.
As with all functions related to health care, good basic education and continuing education are a key component of any health-related profession. People in clinical roles treat patients or provide direct care to patients, while those in non-clinical roles do not provide direct diagnosis, tests, treatments, or care. It's also important to continue improving communication-related skills, as related healthcare careers involve communicating with patients and working with expanded healthcare teams. Working as a CNA provides first-hand experience in interacting with patients and basic healthcare procedures.
Depending on the specific position, responsibilities may include helping to transport patients, monitoring vital signs and providing basic medical care under supervision. Many health services are provided by like-minded health professionals who perform roles other than nurses or doctors.
