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Health care assistant vs assistant

The differences between health care assistants and assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an assistant has an average salary of $37,363, which is higher than the $34,892 average annual salary of a health care assistant.

The top three skills for a health care assistant include patients, customer service and healthcare. The most important skills for an assistant are patients, customer service, and patient care.

Health care assistant vs assistant overview

Health Care AssistantAssistant
Yearly salary$34,892$37,363
Hourly rate$16.77$17.96
Growth rate36%-8%
Number of jobs242,669557,900
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 37%Bachelor's Degree, 49%
Average age5050
Years of experience-2

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.

What does an assistant do?

An assistant intern is responsible for facilitating administrative and clerical tasks as assigned by the management. Assistant interns' duties include keeping records of meetings, receiving calls and handling customer inquiries, assisting on writing reports and data entry processing, cooperating and providing support for business events, and adhering to company policies and regulatory procedures. Successful assistant interns must have excellent time-management, multi-tasking, and communication skills. They must be a team player and fast-learner to handle various tasks in the corporate industry.

Health care assistant vs assistant salary

Health care assistants and assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Health Care AssistantAssistant
Average salary$34,892$37,363
Salary rangeBetween $25,000 And $47,000Between $16,000 And $82,000
Highest paying CityAntioch, CABoston, MA
Highest paying stateAlaskaMassachusetts
Best paying companyMedical University of South CarolinaLatham & Watkins
Best paying industryEducationEducation

Differences between health care assistant and assistant education

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

Health Care AssistantAssistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 37%Bachelor's Degree, 49%
Most common majorNursingBusiness
Most common college-Western Carolina University

Health care assistant vs assistant demographics

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

Health Care AssistantAssistant
Average age5050
Gender ratioMale, 18.8% Female, 81.2%Male, 40.7% Female, 59.3%
Race ratioBlack 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, 9.4% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 3.8% White, 65.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage5%6%

Differences between health care assistant and assistant duties and responsibilities

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.
  • Show more

Assistant example responsibilities.

  • Manage circulations, including educational textbooks and DVDS, video technology and supplies.
  • Manage branches providing information technology support, logistics, training and operational support.
  • Manage company's twitter account and communicate with multiple physical therapy providers around the country
  • Optimize productivity in prioritizing and managing special projects, PowerPoint presentations for classes, and proctore exams for undergraduate classes.
  • Assist in jewelry design and assembly, manage company Facebook page, participate in wholesale buying, and manage retail inventory
  • Manage and update company Facebook page with daily updates, finding/sharing relevant and interesting information, and encouraging fan engagement.
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Health care assistant vs assistant skills

Common health care assistant skills
  • Patients, 20%
  • Customer Service, 11%
  • Healthcare, 10%
  • Patient Appointments, 8%
  • Direct Patient Care, 8%
  • Medical Equipment, 7%
Common assistant skills
  • Patients, 27%
  • Customer Service, 13%
  • Patient Care, 8%
  • CPR, 5%
  • Sales Floor, 5%
  • Scheduling Appointments, 3%

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