It Is Time to Replace the Term “Patient Care Technician” in Dialysis

In the United States,>40,000 dialysis patient care technicians (PCTs) play a critical, frontline role in the care of patients who receive dialysis. While PCTs primarily care for patients receiving in-center, outpatient hemodialysis (HD; 462,539 in 2021),1 they can also assist with HD in the acute, home, and institutional settings, as well as with peritoneal dialysis. Dialysis PCTs providing in-center HD care are supervised by registered nurses within the interdisciplinary dialysis care team (also including physicians, social workers, and dietitians)2 but perform functions well beyond those of nursing assistants in other care settings (eg, skilled nursing facilities).