PCT Pathway — Patient Care Technician Bundle

The ladder

CPCT/A = CNA + Phlebotomy + EKG

🩺 Nurse-Aide Skills

Coach Katie's Clinical Club

57 units · live

🩸 Phlebotomy

Blood Runner Academy

6 modules

🫀 EKG / Telemetry

PCT Micro-Module

new · live

↓

🎖️ Patient Care Technician (CPCT/A)

NHA Certified Patient Care Technician / Assistant — the bedside generalist who can do vitals & ADLs, draw blood, and run a 12-lead.

↓

🚀 Keep climbing → LPN → RN

PCT experience is a strong on-ramp to practical- and registered-nurse programs.

Why PCT? It's the natural next step above CNA: same bedside foundation, plus two high-demand technical skills (blood draws and EKGs) that let one person cover work usually split across three. That versatility is exactly what hospitals staff for — and it pays more than CNA alone.

Your three foundations

Foundation 1

Nurse-Aide Skills

Coach Katie's Clinical Club — 57 scenario units across vitals, ADLs, safety, infection control, and the whole-nurse professionalism track, with skills-lab device sims and a role-aware practice exam.

Covers CPCT/A: Patient Care · Infection Control · Compliance & Safety

Open the Clinical Club →

Foundation 2

Phlebotomy

Blood Runner Academy — venipuncture technique, order of draw, specimen handling, and safety (OSHA bloodborne pathogens), built on the same Learn It / Live It / Share It model.

Covers CPCT/A: Phlebotomy (14%) · Infection Control

Open Blood Runner →

Foundation 3

EKG / Telemetry

The new PCT micro-module — acquire a clean tracing, place V1–V6 correctly, recognize NSR vs. the escalate-now trio (VT/VF/asystole), and stay inside the tech's scope.

Covers CPCT/A: EKG (10%)

Open the EKG module →

CPCT/A exam alignment

How the bundle maps to the NHA CPCT/A blueprint

The exam is ~100 scored questions across five domains. Here's which Force for Health foundation carries each domain.

CPCT/A domain	Weight	Covered by

Reading the map: the nurse-aide foundation (Clinical Club) alone carries roughly three-quarters of the blueprint — Patient Care, Infection Control, and Compliance/Safety. Phlebotomy and EKG add the two technical domains that turn a CNA-level learner into a PCT candidate. Every domain is covered once all three foundations are complete.

Next step up

After PCT: LPN & RN

Patient Care Technician is a paid, resume-building rung — not the ceiling. The same scenario-based habits (assess, prioritize, escalate, document, act inside your scope) carry directly into practical- and registered-nurse programs, where Coach Katie's role-aware exam-prep already spans CNA → LPN → RN.

Try the LPN/RN practice exam →

The PCT Pathway

CPCT/A = CNA + Phlebotomy + EKG

How the bundle maps to the NHA CPCT/A blueprint

After PCT: LPN & RN