Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between first-aid attendants and patient care assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-3 months to become both a first-aid attendant and a patient care assistant. Additionally, a patient care assistant has an average salary of $32,799, which is higher than the $27,639 average annual salary of a first-aid attendant.
The top three skills for a first-aid attendant include customer service, fire safety and BLS. The most important skills for a patient care assistant are patients, vital signs, and PCA.
| First-Aid Attendant | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $27,639 | $32,799 |
| Hourly rate | $13.29 | $15.77 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 164,508 | 261,345 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 38% | High School Diploma, 26% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 3 | 3 |
First-Aid Attendants are responsible for providing immediate medical assistance to employees suffering an injury or illness. Their duties include gathering patient medical information, disinfecting wounds, administering bandages, handling artificial respirators and oxygen administration, and providing medications to relieve pain. They are responsible for arranging transport logistics, maintaining personnel headcount, attending safety meetings, producing first aid reports, and ensuring accurate documentation. First Aid Attendants in health care facilities manage bed changes as well as assist physicians during an emergency.
A patient care assistant is responsible for attending patients' needs with the supervision of a health care professional. Duties of a patient care assistant also include performing basic medical tasks such as taking patients' temperature, monitoring food intake, preparing medicines, recording health conditions, assisting on lab tests and other medical procedures, and providing information and important updates to the patient's family. A patient care assistant must have excellent time-management and multi-tasking skills to perform duties efficiently and accurately.
First-aid attendants and patient care assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| First-Aid Attendant | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Average salary | $27,639 | $32,799 |
| Salary range | Between $21,000 And $35,000 | Between $23,000 And $45,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | San Diego, CA |
| Highest paying state | - | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | - | Microsoft |
| Best paying industry | - | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a first-aid attendant and a patient care assistant in terms of educational background:
| First-Aid Attendant | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 38% | High School Diploma, 26% |
| Most common major | Business | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between first-aid attendants' and patient care assistants' demographics:
| First-Aid Attendant | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 33.2% Female, 66.8% | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.5% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 16.6% Asian, 6.7% White, 61.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% | Black or African American, 10.4% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 15.3% Asian, 7.3% White, 61.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |