Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between operating room assistants and nurses' aides can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-3 months to become both an operating room assistant and a nurses' aide. Additionally, an operating room assistant has an average salary of $34,177, which is higher than the $30,496 average annual salary of a nurses' aide.
The top three skills for an operating room assistant include patients, surgery and anesthesia. The most important skills for a nurses' aide are patients, vital signs, and electrocardiogram.
| Operating Room Assistant | Nurses' Aide | |
| Yearly salary | $34,177 | $30,496 |
| Hourly rate | $16.43 | $14.66 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 9% |
| Number of jobs | 218,839 | 157,723 |
| Job satisfaction | 4 | 4.5 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 43% | High School Diploma, 30% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 3 | 3 |
An operating room assistant works alongside the surgeons in maintaining the orderly and sterile nature of operating rooms. The assistant ensures that all surgical equipment is clean and hygienic, all monitoring equipment is functional, and everything needed by the doctor is present inside the operating room. The assistant position is vital during an operation. The surgeon may become too focused on the operation at hand that helpful assistants must ensure an operation's smooth flow.
A nurses' aide is responsible for providing healthcare and welfare assistance to patients in long-term care facilities while under the supervision of a registered nurse or a licensed colleague with extensive expertise. A nurses' aide is mostly involved in basic hygienic tasks, such as helping a patient in bathing and dressing, using the toilet, preparing meals, feeding, and performing basic chores. It is also vital for a nurses' aide to coordinate with supervisors, reporting any changes in a patients' condition or behavior.
Operating room assistants and nurses' aides have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Operating Room Assistant | Nurses' Aide | |
| Average salary | $34,177 | $30,496 |
| Salary range | Between $26,000 And $43,000 | Between $23,000 And $39,000 |
| Highest paying City | Santa Monica, CA | Urban Honolulu, HI |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | University of California, Berkeley | University of California, Berkeley |
| Best paying industry | - | Health Care |
There are a few differences between an operating room assistant and a nurses' aide in terms of educational background:
| Operating Room Assistant | Nurses' Aide | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 43% | High School Diploma, 30% |
| Most common major | Business | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between operating room assistants' and nurses' aides' demographics:
| Operating Room Assistant | Nurses' Aide | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 46.8% Female, 53.2% | Male, 13.2% Female, 86.8% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 5.0% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 7.1% White, 61.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9% | Black or African American, 8.8% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 13.3% Asian, 7.6% White, 64.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |