.jpg)
Finding the right textbook for your patient care technician course is essential to ensuring your students learn the skills they need. With the right PCT learning materials, your kids will be well on their way to earning in-demand careers--with the wrong one, however, they might find themselves scrambling to catch up to their peers.
So what are the best patient care technician books out there? As a health science curriculum developer, we often hear teachers ask this question, and in response, we’ve put together a list of your strongest options.
In this article, you’ll discover the 3 best patient care technician textbooks for your course:
- Fundamental Concepts and Skills for the Patient Care Technician, 2nd Edition
- Principles & Techniques of Patient Care, 7th Edition
- Mosby's Textbook for Nursing Assistants, 10th Edition
By the end of this article, you’ll have an in-depth understanding of each of these textbooks so you can choose the right one for your course.
1. Fundamental Concepts and Skills for the Patient Care Technician, 2nd Edition
Author: Kimberly Townsend
Copyright: Mosby, 2022
Fundamental Concepts and Skills for the Patient Care Technician is a comprehensive textbook that covers the foundational skills and knowledge students will need to become certified PCTs.
It provides step-by-step instructions on how to perform procedures, practice scenarios, and more, each designed to prepare students for success on their PCT exams.
This patient care technician textbook consists of 35 chapters divided across 8 sections:
- Introduction to Healthcare
The Patient- Safety
- Patient Assessment
- Patient Care and Comfort
- Blood and Specimen Collection and Testing
- Surgery and Immobility
- Special Care Concerns and Settings
Each section contains 4-5 chapters that cover specific procedures, skills, and concepts essential for future PCTs to learn. These chapters also include review questions, chapter summaries, vocabulary sections, and more, to provide students with a well-rounded knowledge base.
What Does This Patient Care Textbook Cost and Who Is It Intended For?
A 2nd edition copy of Fundamental Concepts and Skills costs $100.99 on Elsevier’s website.
Altogether, this textbook would be a solid choice for most patient care technician courses, particularly if you’re interested in helping your students earn their PCT certifications.
If you need a comprehensive, in-depth textbook to both teach your students essential knowledge and prep them for exams, then Fundamental Concepts and Skills would be a good choice for you.
2. Principles & Techniques of Patient Care, 7th Edition
Authors: Sheryl Fairchild and Roberta O’Shea
Copyright: Elsevier Inc, 2022
Principles & Techniques of Patient Care is a skills-focused textbook that provides foundational knowledge on performing patient care procedures and techniques. Some of these techniques include taking vital signs, patient transfer activities, and more.
All in all, this patient care technician textbook is perfect for helping students master hands-on skills, whether they go on to become PCTs or physical therapists.
Principles & Techniques of Patient Care is divided into 13 chapters:
- Preparation for Patient Care Activities
Approaches to Infection Control- Assessment of Vital Signs
- Body Mechanics
- Position and Draping
- Basic Patient Assessments and Interventions
- Features and Activities of Wheelchairs
- Transfer Activities
- Assistive Devices, Patterns, and Activities
- Special Equipment and Patient Care Environments
- Basic Wound Care and Specialized Interventions
- Incidents and Emergencies
- Americans With Disabilities Act and Environmental Assessments
Each chapter includes resources like problem-solving activities, procedure guidelines, and full-color photographs depicting essential concepts and techniques.
An eBook version is also included with every print purchase, which allows you to access further resources like video clips that demonstrate medical procedures. This digital version will allow you and your students to access their material from several devices.
What Does This Patient Care Textbook Cost and Who Is It Intended For?
The 7th edition of Principles & Techniques of Patient Care is available for $114.99 on Elsevier’s website.
Altogether, this textbook would be a strong choice for PCT courses specifically focused on helping students master essential skills and techniques in order to succeed in the workplace.
If you need a skills-focused textbook designed to help students develop practical PCT techniques, then Principles & Techniques of Patient Care may be the right fit for you.
3. Mosby’s Textbook for Nursing Assistants, 10th Edition
Authors: Sheila A. Sorrentino and Leighann Remmert
Copyright: Mosby, 2021
Mosby’s Textbook for Nursing Assistants, 10th Edition is designed to help students prepare for various clinical care settings, including long-term, acute, and subacute.
Though intended for future nursing assistants, many of the practical skills learned from this textbook apply to patient care technicians, because of the similar duties the two roles share.
This textbook is extensive and detailed---comprised of 60 chapters, some of which include:
- Medical Terminology
The Older Person- Preventing Falls
- Restraint Alternatives and Restraints
- Preventing Infection
- Body Mechanics
- Moving the Person
- Transferring the Person
- Bedmaking
- Nutrition Needs
- Fluid Needs
- Vital Signs
- Hearing, Speech, and Vision Problems
- Nervous System and Musculo-Skeletal Disorders
- Mental Health Disorders
- Assisted Living
- End-Of-Life Care
- And more
Across these 60 chapters, there are step-by-step instructions for more than 100 different medical procedures, as well as tips on teamwork, time management, long-term care, and even how to find a job after becoming certified.
What Does This Textbook Cost and Who Is It Intended For?
You can purchase the 10th edition of Mosby’s Textbook for Nursing Assistants for $80.95 from Elsevier’s website. This makes it a slightly more affordable option than the other health science textbooks on this list.
In many health science programs, the term “patient care technician” is interchangeable with “health assistant” or “nurse assistant”, and all are covered by the same skills. This means that despite its title, Mosby’s Textbook for Nursing Assistants might be the right fit for your PCT course, if it teaches your students the skills a PCT will need.
If you need a well-rounded, in-depth textbook to help you teach the practical knowledge a patient care technician needs to have, then Mosby’s Textbook for Nursing Assistants may be the choice for you.
Need More Than a Patient Care Technician Textbook to Prep Your Students for Exams?
It’s critical you choose a strong textbook to teach your patient care technician course. After all, your textbook is the foundation for your whole course, and the key to ensuring your students don’t fall behind in their education.
In this article, you’ve discovered some of the best textbooks out there for teaching your students the fundamental PCT skills they need for the job. However, even the more specialized textbooks on this list will only go so far toward preparing your students for their certification exams.
Instead, many teachers find that a curriculum system like HealthCenter21---designed to align directly with PCT certification exams---can be the perfect addition to their patient care technician courses.
If you want to see how HealthCenter21 can help your students pass their exams and get certified, check out our step-by-step CPCT/A exam success guide.
This guide goes in-depth into the CPCT/A exam, including its eligibility requirements, exam topics, resources to prep students, and what HealthCenter21 modules are recommended to teach your kids everything they need to pass:
