How To Become A Dietary Patient Aide: What It Is and Career Path

What is a dietary patient aide and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a dietary patient aide. For example, did you know that they make an average of $13.03 an hour? That's $27,112 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 16,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreDietary Patient AideUS Average

Salary

2.1

Avg. Salary $27,112

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.5

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.57%

Asian 4.59%

Black or African American 27.26%

Hispanic or Latino 15.35%

Unknown 4.16%

White 48.06%

Gender

female 75.28%

male 24.72%

Age - 41

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 41

Stress level

9.5

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.5

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a dietary patient aide

Explore dietary patient aide education requirements

Most common dietary patient aide degrees

High School Diploma

33.3 %

Bachelor's

27.4 %

Associate

17.9 %

Start to develop specific dietary patient aide skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	55.15%
Patient Safety	6.25%
Vital Signs	5.40%
Direct Patient Care	5.32%
CPR	5.21%

Complete relevant dietary patient aide training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New dietary patient aides learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a dietary patient aide based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real dietary patient aide resumes.

Obtain the necessary licensing

Becoming a licensed dietary patient aide usually doesn't require a college degree. However, you need to pass an exam to become a licensed dietary patient aide in most of states. 25 states require dietary patient aides to have license for their work. You can see the list of states below.

State	Education	Exam	License url
Alaska	Degree required	Third-party exam required	Nurse Aide
Arkansas	Specific course required	Both state and third-party exams required	Nursing Assistant (Certified)
California	Specific course required	State exam required	Certified Nurse Assistant
Colorado	Specific course required	State exam required	Nurse Aide
Connecticut	Specific course required	State exam required	Nurses Aide

Research dietary patient aide duties and responsibilities

Conduct and facilitate PCA lead group activities as scheduled
Provide in house rehabilitation to the disable.
Demonstrate compassion and professionalism while delivering dialysis treatment to high-risk populations.
Explain dialysis procedure and operation of hemodialysis machine to patient and calculate the proper amount for fluid removal during dialysis procedure.

Prepare your dietary patient aide resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your dietary patient aide resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a dietary patient aide resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable dietary patient aide resume templates

Build a professional dietary patient aide resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your dietary patient aide resume.