My personal HCE lies primarily in my three years and counting experience as a psych-tech on a medical psychiatrics unit in the Florida Hospital system. Three years ago I was finishing up my senior year at UCF in Psychology and looking for a job that was more applicable to the field in which I was studying. At that point I had many ideas as to what I wanted to do but no definitive choices or decisions. A friend of mine was working at the aforementioned "psych ward" and said they were hiring so I decided to give it a shot.
Upon walking onto the unit for my interview, I was sexually harassed physically and verbally by a patient walking by and immediately thought to myself "what the hell am I doing here?" The interview went well and I was offered the job which I took but not without any reservation.
The first couple weeks were scary but I learned more about interacting with not just psychiatric patients but people in those weeks that I ever had before in my life. This unit was designed for psychiatric patients who also had significant medical diagnoses so I saw both sides of the equation for these patients. It was during the first month that I knew that healthcare was where I wanted to spend the rest of my professional life.
Psychiatrics is a different world altogether, you can be having a casual (this being a VERY relative term on the psych ward) conversation with a patient one minute then having to "take them down" the next to save yourself and most importantly, them. Psychiatrics is not without sad and depressing moments where you think that some will never be cured but it is definetely rewarding work.
It is through this experience that I have been given some of my best opportunities in health care experience, the medical director of the unit gave me the opportunity to shadow him on rounds (he is an M.D. Psychiatrist) for over 100 hours where I learned (somewhat) how to diagnose just by speaking to patient, which is one of the coolest parts of psychiatry.
Now, how does one get Health Care Experience?? There are several ways, but in my opinion the hospital is the best setting to be immersed in medicine to the fullest and to get your hands wet in many different aspects of the health care world, but how does one get into the hospital?
The obvious answer is a job, this leads me to two different entry-level options: patient transport and patient care tech.
Patient transport is a great way to see the hospital as a whole and to meet people throughout the hospital and the greatest advantage is that you can shake hands with nurse managers that can eventually hire you as a Patient Care Tech or PCT which takes me to the next job...
The PCT takes care of patients and assists the patients in the Activities of Daily Living or ADLs. They also are an assistant to the nurses and physicians and help them by taking care of many menial to significant tasks throughout the day that can include everything from bed baths, butt wiping (thats right, code browns), and speaking to patients about their problems and helping to absolve them.
Patient transport is a great means to an end in my opinion for those who are considering a graduate medical program. I say this because though it does involve patient interaction, it does not compare to the experience of a PCT or EMT (Emergency Medical Technician which is awesome HCE but requires a lengthy licensure process) in terms of that which is significant to an admissions committee or ADCOM.
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