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The differences between patient care assistants and health care assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a health care assistant has an average salary of $34,892, 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 a health care assistant are patients, customer service, and healthcare.
| Patient Care Assistant | Health Care Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $32,799 | $34,892 |
| Hourly rate | $15.77 | $16.77 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 36% |
| Number of jobs | 261,345 | 242,669 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 3 | - |
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.
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.
Patient care assistants and health care assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Patient Care Assistant | Health Care Assistant | |
| Average salary | $32,799 | $34,892 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $45,000 | Between $25,000 And $47,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Diego, CA | Antioch, CA |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Medical University of South Carolina |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Education |
There are a few differences between a patient care assistant and a health care assistant in terms of educational background:
| Patient Care Assistant | Health Care Assistant | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between patient care assistants' and health care assistants' demographics:
| Patient Care Assistant | Health Care Assistant | |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% | Male, 18.8% Female, 81.2% |
| 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, 24.0% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 23.4% Asian, 10.5% White, 35.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 5% |