Care associate vs care partner

The differences between care associates and care partners can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a care associate has an average salary of $32,558, which is higher than the $31,723 average annual salary of a care partner.

The top three skills for a care associate include patients, vital signs and PCA. The most important skills for a care partner are patients, vital signs, and care plan.

Care associate vs care partner overview

	Care Associate	Care Partner
Yearly salary	$32,558	$31,723
Hourly rate	$15.65	$15.25
Growth rate	9%	36%
Number of jobs	192,391	85,778
Job satisfaction	-	3
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 34%
Average age	42	48
Years of experience	3	-

What does a care associate do?

Patient care associates typically work at different healthcare settings where their primary job is to provide basic patient needs and comfort. They are also responsible for several patient care tasks, including bathing patients, changing the pillows and bedsheets of patients, and serving patients' meals. They should comply with safety protocols when performing these tasks. Some of them can give patients medication depending on the level of their training. To become a patient care specialist, one should possess several skills, such as good communication.

What does a care partner do?

A care partner is in charge of taking care of patients in a medical facility. Their responsibilities typically revolve around coordinating with health care experts to learn about the patients' specific care plans and assisting them in their daily hygienic tasks such as bathing, dressing, and going to toilets. They may also help patients when walking or moving around. Furthermore, as a care partner, it is essential to provide emotional support to patients and monitor their progress, reporting to nurses or doctors regularly.

Care associate vs care partner salary

Care associates and care partners have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Care Associate	Care Partner
Average salary	$32,558	$31,723
Salary range	Between $21,000 And $48,000	Between $22,000 And $44,000
Highest paying City	Hollister, CA	Great Falls, MT
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Alaska
Best paying company	Analysis Group	Mount Sinai Health System
Best paying industry	Health Care	Health Care

Differences between care associate and care partner education

There are a few differences between a care associate and a care partner in terms of educational background:

	Care Associate	Care Partner
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 34%
Most common major	Nursing	Nursing
Most common college	-	-

Care associate vs care partner demographics

Here are the differences between care associates' and care partners' demographics:

	Care Associate	Care Partner
Average age	42	48
Gender ratio	Male, 22.3% Female, 77.7%	Male, 15.0% Female, 85.0%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.5% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 14.6% Asian, 7.8% White, 62.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%	Black or African American, 12.0% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 17.5% Asian, 8.7% White, 56.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.2%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between care associate and care partner duties and responsibilities

Care associate example responsibilities.

Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
Provide direct care to patients in intensive care unit with empathy, compassion and enthusiasm.
Utilize strong interpersonal skills to educate patients on procedures, rehabilitation and contraception methods.
Care for patients requiring telemetry monitoring and work collaboratively with telemetry technician/nurses to detect and report abnormalities to physicians.
Coordinate with clinicians to meet the specific needs of patients and perform clinical care in an ICU.
Assign to new ER and ICU departments by leadership to maintain quality of patient care and increase patient satisfaction.

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Care partner example responsibilities.

Manage CMS, state, and complaint surveys.
Manage shelterpractices and evaluate various volunteering, outreach, foster, rescue, and pet placement programs.
Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
Direct motion capture shoots for adding more animation to existing characters for crowd simulation.
Comfort care and ADL's, including range of motion exercises and encouraging early mobility in post-op patients.
Work on the Neurosurgery/Neuroscience unit caring for step down patients from the ICU, seizure patients and stroke patient.

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Care associate vs care partner skills

Common care associate skills

Patients, 24%
Vital Signs, 11%
PCA, 7%
Phlebotomy, 7%
CPR, 7%
Customer Service, 5%

Common care partner skills

Patients, 17%
Vital Signs, 9%
Care Plan, 6%
Medication Administration, 5%
CPR, 5%
Customer Service, 4%

Care Associate vs. similar jobs

Care Associate related careers

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Updated January 8, 2025

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