Care associate vs health care assistant

The differences between care associates and health care assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a health care assistant has an average salary of $34,892, which is higher than the $32,558 average annual salary of a care associate.

The top three skills for a care associate include patients, vital signs and PCA. The most important skills for a health care assistant are patients, customer service, and healthcare.

Care associate vs health care assistant overview

	Care Associate	Health Care Assistant
Yearly salary	$32,558	$34,892
Hourly rate	$15.65	$16.77
Growth rate	9%	36%
Number of jobs	192,391	242,669
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Average age	42	50
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 health care assistant do?

A health care assistant primarily performs support tasks to help nurses in providing care and assistance to patients. Their duties usually include assisting patients with their daily hygienic tasks such as bathing, going to the toilet, dressing, and brushing their teeth. They may also prepare meals according to protocols and guidelines, feed patients, assist them when walking, and run other errands as necessary. Most importantly, a health care assistant monitors the patients' condition and their treatment progress, coordinating with the nurses and physicians regularly.

Care associate vs health care assistant salary

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

	Care Associate	Health Care Assistant
Average salary	$32,558	$34,892
Salary range	Between $21,000 And $48,000	Between $25,000 And $47,000
Highest paying City	Hollister, CA	Antioch, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Alaska
Best paying company	Analysis Group	Medical University of South Carolina
Best paying industry	Health Care	Education

Differences between care associate and health care assistant education

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

	Care Associate	Health Care Assistant
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 38%	Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Most common major	Nursing	Nursing
Most common college	-	-

Care associate vs health care assistant demographics

Here are the differences between care associates' and health care assistants' demographics:

	Care Associate	Health Care Assistant
Average age	42	50
Gender ratio	Male, 22.3% Female, 77.7%	Male, 18.8% Female, 81.2%
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, 24.0% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 23.4% Asian, 10.5% White, 35.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%
LGBT Percentage	7%	5%

Differences between care associate and health care assistant 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.

Health care assistant example responsibilities.

Monitor / enforce OSHA standards and coordinate / lead daily, weekly, and monthly safety meetings to educate staff.
Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
Facilitate physical therapy exercises, positional rotation, monitor medication compliance and effects, provide companionship, carry out ADL's.
care professional, extremely competent, providing guidance and counseling for rehabilitation of mentally disturb patients.
Process consults requests for electrophysiology, EKG and other services.
Assist train staff in the event of cardiac arrest and actively participate in CPR.

Care associate vs health care assistant skills

Common care associate skills

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

Common health care assistant skills

Patients, 20%
Customer Service, 11%
Healthcare, 10%
Patient Appointments, 8%
Direct Patient Care, 8%
Medical Equipment, 7%

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Healthcare Support Industry
Care Associate
Care Associate vs Health Care Assistant

Updated January 8, 2025

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