Training Standards for a Patient Care Technician

An institution hiring a candidate to perform the services of a patient care technician shall comply with the following requirements:

• Verify the patient care technician has completed the requirements in this executive order, including, but not limited to reviewing the patient care technician’s certification of completion from the American Health Care association and National Center for Assisted Living.
•  Ensure any training of patient care technicians is:  (A) performed by or under the general supervision of a primary training instructor who shall be a registered nurse who possesses a minimum of two years of nursing experience, at least one year of which must be in a chronic and convalescent nursing home or rest home with nursing supervision or (B)  under the general supervision of the director of nurses, the director of nurses is prohibited from performing the actual training of patient care technician’s.
•  iii.  Ensure qualified personnel from the health field may serve as trainers in the patient care technician training program under the supervision of the facility’s patient care technician primary training instructor provided they have a minimum of one year of experience in a facility for the elderly or chronically ill of any age within the immediately preceding five years. These health field personnel may include the following: registered nurses, sanitarians, fire safety experts, nursing home administrators, gerontologist, psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, therapeutic recreation specialists, speech/language/hearing therapists. All trainers shall be, where applicable, licensed, registered and/or certified in their field.  Licensed practical nurses, under the supervision of the patient care technician primary training instructor, may serve as trainers in the patient care technician training program provided the licensed practical nurse has two years’ experience in caring for the elderly or chronically ill of any age.
• The institution shall notify their certified and licensed staff members regarding the patient care technicians limited scope of permissible work, and detail what duties may not be delegated to patient care technician.
• If the institution learns that any patient care technician is performing duties outside of the limited scope of permissible work, it must immediately intervene and reassign those duties to authorized personnel.
• A patient care technician shall report to the institution’s charge nurse/manager on duty.

The institution shall review the following registries prior to hiring a patient care technician who has completed the required training to ensure the applicant does not have any disqualifying offenses.  The institution shall complete a policy and procedure for determining a disqualifying offense.  Such policy and procedure may follow the disqualifying offenses outlined in section 19a-491c (a) as revised in Public Act 19-116. 

• National Sex Offender Registry:  http://www.nsopw.gov/Core/Portal.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1;
• Connecticut Sex Offender Registry http://www.communitynotification.com/cap_main.php?office=54567 ;
• Office of the Inspector General (OIG) exclusion list http://www.oig.hhs.gov/exclusions/index.asp;
• Connecticut Practitioner  Licensing and Investigations Section License Verification System http://www.ct.gov/dph/cwp/view.asp?a=3121&q=476312
• Judicial Branch Criminal Convictions Database http://www.jud2.ct.gov/crdockets/SearchByDefDisp.aspx
• DSS Quality Assurance Administrative Action List https://portal.ct.gov/DSS/Quality-Assurance/Quality-Assurance-Administrative-Actions-List

Completion of all training and documentation requirements including competencies for patient care technician candidates is the ultimate responsibility of the training/hiring institution;

Any licensed comprehensive care facility may train patient care technician candidates without regard to any current Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program (NATCEP) training ban; and

Any licensed comprehensive care facility may train patient care technician candidates without regard to any current Nurse Aide Training and Competency Evaluation Program (NATCEP) training ban.

The Person-in-Charge of the institution shall ensure that the patient care technicians continue to provide services that do not jeopardize the health, safety and welfare of the patients, and shall have the authority to request that staff member to cease patient care technician activities if there are concerns.