Patient care technicians are key in dialysis but are often not fairly recognized
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Key takeaways:
- The value of patient care technicians is not always reflected in job policy or structure.
- Patient care technicians often play a flexible and not well-defined role in dialysis clinics.
While patient care technicians play a key role in dialysis, there may be a disconnect between their efforts and the recognition they receive, according to researchers.
“Dialysis patient care technicians (PCTs), who provide life-sustaining health care services ... represent an understudied, yet critical, segment of the frontline U.S. health care workforce,” Megan Urbanski, PhD, MSW, LCSW, assistant professor in the division of transplantation in the department of surgery at Emory University School of Medicine, wrote with colleagues. “U.S. PCTs spend substantial time chairside with patients, overseeing the technical and logistical aspects of dialysis, including cannulation of access; cleaning, maintaining and setting parameters on hemodialysis machines; and measuring vital signs and monitoring patients during.”
Researchers performed a qualitative analysis to explore perceptions of the patient care technician position, responsibilities and training among current care technicians, dialysis staff and patients on hemodialysis. Urbanski and colleagues conducted seven focus groups from March 2023 to May 2023 with 36 U.S. participants: three groups with 19 patient care technicians, two groups with six non-care technician staffers and two groups with 11 patients.
The following eight themes emerged regarding the care technician role:
- the value of care technicians is not always reflected in job policies or company structure;
- care technicians often play a flexible and not well-defined role in dialysis clinics;
- despite burnout risk, care technicians provide consistent high-quality care;
- care technicians are frequently seen as ancillary rather than a core part of dialysis team;
- job training and qualifications are not always standardized among care technicians and may sometimes deviate from job expectations and responsibilities;
- care technician-patient relationships boundaries can blur due to the nature and frequency of dialysis, with patients and staff citing one another positively or as as friends
- patients on dialysis and staff may be exposed to multilevel workplace safety issues; and
- care technician-staff dynamics may affect clinic morale, efficiency and patient satisfaction.
“These findings and others are highly actionable and warrant further intervention work,” the researchers wrote. “For example, potential initiatives aimed at integrating PCTs more fully within the dialysis interdisciplinary care team and recognizing their unique knowledge and perspectives could include involving PCTs in interdisciplinary clinic rounds and patient care conferences.”
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