Emergency Room Technician or Patient Care Assistant???

[Dr. Anonymouss]

I was fortunate enough to receive job offers for both of these positions and I am not sure which to take. They are both very patient oriented, but I am not sure which may appeal more to admissions committees and/or have more job satisfaction. The pay ranges are very similar so I would assume the only thing to consider is job satisfaction/quality of patient interaction. I appreciate all feedback!

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[jarednogeek]

I don't think either would "look better" as long as it's patient interaction. just pick one that makes you happy

 

[eaglebaseball4]

Do the ER tech. If the patient care assistant position is anything like the ones at my hospital, you’ll spend most of your day wiping butts, giving baths, and taking vital signs. I would take the ER tech if I was in your position.

 

[Blanky]

ER tech is going to have more hands on skills, more emergent and drammatic situation which will both train you to remain calm and expose you to empathetic situations at the onset of said situation. You are going to get great patient contacteither way.

You will find success stories on sdn from both sides of this and I will admit I am biased as a ED tech of three years. I can say my work experiences became priceless on the interview trail as I have been accepted to every school i have interviewed at aside from one waitlist.

 

[sophop]

As @Blanky says, you'll find success stories on both sides. And wow, with 3 years in the ER, I'm guessing you had lots of things to talk about - but I'm on the other side. Interviewers at a couple of the schools where I was admitted (and 1 WL) specifically mentioned that they liked that I spent almost a year in clinical volunteering that included changing bed pans and giving sponge baths. Paraphrasing one, "we show you how to do procedures, you saw what patients go through when the doctors aren't around." I was lucky that my volunteer job did allow me to also observe in the ER and the OR, but I got a lot more stuff to write about in my PS and supps from my one-on-one times with the patients.

 

[Throwaway5129]

Which one pays more? Go with that one. They're virtually the same in regards to helping your application, if that's your major concern.

 

[RNtoMD87]

Er tech will teach you much more.

 

[lancecorpsman]

ER Tech without a doubt. I’ve learned so much and I get to do a lot too. You get to connect with physicians from all specialties. You also get to build a pretty close relationship with the ER docs since they are always in the ER. I just had one of the ER docs go over my research paper.