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What does a health aide do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
What does a health aide do

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.

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Health aide responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real health aide resumes:

  • Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
  • Perform care plan documentation to effectively implement personal care, dietary needs, and ADL requirements.
  • Share health information with school staff and arrange training sessions for CPR certification and health care implementation.
  • Care consists of medication administration, helping with ADL'S if necessary with the students with significant needs.
  • Last school year, perform CPR on an adult volunteer and help resuscitate him and is doing just fine.
  • Document all physical condition, behavioral and mental illness changes in patients as well as procedures perform and medication administer.
  • Offer therapeutic services and crises intervention to emotionally disturb older adults and elderly people living in the retirement and rehabilitation home.
  • Help the patient care more for them by teaching them to use walkers and wheelchairs along with special techniques and equipment.

Health aide skills and personality traits

We calculated that 32% of Health Aides are proficient in Patients, Home Health, and Community Health. They’re also known for soft skills such as Integrity, Physical stamina, and Detail oriented.

We break down the percentage of Health Aides that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Patients, 32%

    Documented all physical condition, behavioral and mental illness changes in patients as well as procedures performed and medication administered.

  • Home Health, 20%

    Arranged for home health aide visits which required allotted for efficient time to complete assignments and to meet patient needs.

  • Community Health, 7%

    Facilitated health education activities & trained community health promoters

  • Vital Signs, 5%

    Pass food trays to them, laundry, vital Signs, encourage social skills, chart the activity of the individuals.

  • Patient Care, 5%

    Assist nursing staff with non-medical related patient care responsibilities.

  • CPR, 5%

    Shared health information with school staff and arranged training sessions for CPR certification and health care implementation.

Most health aides use their skills in "patients," "home health," and "community health" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential health aide responsibilities here:

Integrity. The most essential soft skill for a health aide to carry out their responsibilities is integrity. This skill is important for the role because "home health aides and personal care aides should make clients feel comfortable when they tend to personal activities, such as helping a client bathe." Additionally, a health aide resume shows how their duties depend on integrity: "entrusted with appropriately filing all documentation related to medical care. "

Physical stamina. Another essential skill to perform health aide duties is physical stamina. Health aides responsibilities require that "home health aides and personal care aides should be comfortable performing physical tasks." Health aides also use physical stamina in their role according to a real resume snippet: "home health duties include assisting client with everyday needs, physical therapy and medication aid"

Detail oriented. health aides are also known for detail oriented, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to health aide responsibilities, because "home health aides and personal care aides must adhere to specific rules and protocols and carefully follow instructions to help take care of clients." A health aide resume example shows how detail oriented is used in the workplace: "complete detailed documentation on health room logs and monthly school report forms. "

Interpersonal skills. A big part of what health aides do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to health aide responsibilities because "home health aides and personal care aides must work closely with clients." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical health aide tasks: "demonstrated positive interpersonal relations, while working with patients, families, physicians, nurses, and management. "

See the full list of health aide skills

The three companies that hire the most health aides are:

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Compare different health aides

Health aide vs. Sitter

A sitter is responsible for assisting medical needs under the supervision of an attending physician, registered nurses, and other health professionals. Sitters monitor the patients' daily activities and perform medical duties such as taking the patient's temperature, administering medications, monitoring food intake, helping with bathing needs, and responding to the patients' inquiries, concerns, and requests. They also keep track of medical charts to report the patients' health condition and progress to the senior staff.

We looked at the average health aide salary and compared it with the wages of a sitter. Generally speaking, sitters are paid $1,710 lower than health aides per year.While the two careers have a salary gap, they share some of the same responsibilities. Employees in both health aide and sitter positions are skilled in patients, home health, and vital signs.

While similarities exist, there are also some differences between health aides and sitter. For instance, health aide responsibilities require skills such as "community health," "patient care," "health services," and "math." Whereas a sitter is skilled in "kids," "patient safety," "pet," and "companionship." This is part of what separates the two careers.

Sitters earn the highest salaries when working in the non profits industry, with an average yearly salary of $33,017. On the other hand, health aides are paid more in the education industry with an average salary of $30,290.sitters tend to reach similar levels of education than health aides. In fact, sitters are 1.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Health aide vs. Attending, ambulatory care

An attending, ambulatory care is responsible for providing patient care, supporting ongoing treatment of health issues, and managing recovery through coordinating with attending physicians or other medical professionals. They evaluate medical records, including history and consultation purposes, develop a necessary care plan, keep an accurate medical chart, and schedule laboratory tests and follow-up as needed. An attending, ambulatory care must have extensive knowledge of the medical principles and disciplines to monitor the patients' condition and observe medical measures.

A career as a attending, ambulatory care brings a lower average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a health aide. In fact, attendings, ambulatory care salary is $808 lower than the salary of health aides per year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both health aides and attendings, ambulatory care have skills such as "patients," "vital signs," and "patient care. "

In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, health aide responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "home health," "community health," "health services," and "math." Meanwhile, an attending, ambulatory care has duties that require skills in areas such as "customer service," "quality care," "good judgment," and "rehabilitation." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.

On average, attendings, ambulatory care earn a lower salary than health aides. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, attendings, ambulatory care earn the most pay in the government industry with an average salary of $30,236. Whereas health aides have higher pay in the education industry, with an average salary of $30,290.In general, attendings, ambulatory care achieve similar levels of education than health aides. They're 0.7% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Health aide vs. Care associate

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.

On average scale, care associates bring in higher salaries than health aides. In fact, they earn a $2,124 higher salary per year.By looking over several health aides and care associates resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "patients," "home health," and "vital signs." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, health aides are more likely to have skills like "community health," "health services," "math," and "emergency care." But a care associate is more likely to have skills like "pca," "phlebotomy," "customer service," and "direct patient care."

Care associates earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $31,845. Health aides earn the highest pay from the education industry, with an average salary of $30,290.When it comes to education, care associates tend to earn similar degree levels compared to health aides. In fact, they're 0.2% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Health aide vs. Care provider

A care provider is responsible for assisting patients with their healthcare needs at the highest quality service. Care providers work in various medical organizations or are privately employed by a household. They perform medical procedures such as taking the patient's temperature and vital signs, monitoring their food intake, administering medications, collecting specimens for laboratory tests, and reporting the patient's condition to the attending physician or other health care professionals. A care provider must have excellent communication and organization skills, especially when consulting with patients for their needs and developing healthcare plans.

Care providers average a lower salary than the annual salary of health aides. The difference is about $782 per year.While their salaries may vary, health aides and care providers both use similar skills to perform their duties. Resumes from both professions include skills like "patients," "vital signs," and "patient care. "Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A health aide uses "home health," "community health," "health services," and "math." Care providers are more likely to have duties that require skills in "senior care," "meal prep," "good judgment," and "customer service. "In general, care providers earn the most working in the government industry, with an average salary of $32,543. The highest-paying industry for a health aide is the education industry.In general, care providers hold similar degree levels compared to health aides. Care providers are 0.3% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of health aide

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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