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The differences between patient care assistants and assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-3 months to become a patient care assistant, becoming an assistant takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, an assistant has an average salary of $37,363, which is higher than the $32,799 average annual salary of a patient care assistant.
The top three skills for a patient care assistant include patients, vital signs and PCA. The most important skills for an assistant are patients, customer service, and patient care.
| Patient Care Assistant | Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $32,799 | $37,363 |
| Hourly rate | $15.77 | $17.96 |
| Growth rate | 9% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 261,345 | 557,900 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 3 | 2 |
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.
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.
Patient care assistants and assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Patient Care Assistant | Assistant | |
| Average salary | $32,799 | $37,363 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $45,000 | Between $16,000 And $82,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Diego, CA | Boston, MA |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Latham & Watkins |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Education |
There are a few differences between a patient care assistant and an assistant in terms of educational background:
| Patient Care Assistant | Assistant | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Bachelor's Degree, 49% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Business |
| Most common college | - | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between patient care assistants' and assistants' demographics:
| Patient Care Assistant | Assistant | |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% | Male, 40.7% Female, 59.3% |
| Race ratio | 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% | 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 Percentage | 7% | 6% |