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The differences between health aides and patient care assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a patient care assistant has an average salary of $32,799, which is higher than the $30,434 average annual salary of a health aide.
The top three skills for a health aide include patients, home health and community health. The most important skills for a patient care assistant are patients, vital signs, and PCA.
| Health Aide | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $30,434 | $32,799 |
| Hourly rate | $14.63 | $15.77 |
| Growth rate | 36% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 121,842 | 261,345 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 28% | High School Diploma, 26% |
| Average age | 50 | 42 |
| Years of experience | - | 3 |
A health aide is responsible for providing care and assistance to patients in medical facilities, care centers, and even at home. They typically help patients by administering medicines, monitoring their blood pressure and vital signs, facilitating exercises, preparing meals, providing emotional support, and assisting them in performing hygienic tasks such as bathing, dressing, brushing teeth, and going to the toilet. Furthermore, as a health aide, it is essential to monitor the behavior and progress of patients, reporting to nurses and physicians regularly.
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.
Health aides and patient care assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Health Aide | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Average salary | $30,434 | $32,799 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $39,000 | Between $23,000 And $45,000 |
| Highest paying City | Marysville, WA | San Diego, CA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | Boston Medical Center | Microsoft |
| Best paying industry | Education | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a health aide and a patient care assistant in terms of educational background:
| Health Aide | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 28% | High School Diploma, 26% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between health aides' and patient care assistants' demographics:
| Health Aide | Patient Care Assistant | |
| Average age | 50 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 16.6% Female, 83.4% | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% |
| Race ratio | 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% | 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 | 5% | 7% |