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The differences between patient care assistants and home health cares can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a home health care has an average salary of $37,683, 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 home health care are home health, patients, and social work.
| Patient Care Assistant | Home Health Care | |
| Yearly salary | $32,799 | $37,683 |
| Hourly rate | $15.77 | $18.12 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 36% |
| Number of jobs | 261,345 | 184,582 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | 5 |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | High School Diploma, 29% |
| 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.
Home health aides are healthcare professionals who are responsible for providing support and personal services to patients. These aides are required to monitor their patients by observing the physical and mental condition of their patients. They must provide services such as housekeeping and laundry, buying food and other household requirements, and preparing and serving meals and snacks. Home health aides must also help the family members of their patients by teaching them the appropriate ways to lift, turn, and re-position their positions.
Patient care assistants and home health cares have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Patient Care Assistant | Home Health Care | |
| Average salary | $32,799 | $37,683 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $45,000 | Between $23,000 And $60,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Diego, CA | - |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | - |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | - |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | - |
There are a few differences between a patient care assistant and a home health care in terms of educational background:
| Patient Care Assistant | Home Health Care | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | High School Diploma, 29% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Nursing |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between patient care assistants' and home health cares' demographics:
| Patient Care Assistant | Home Health Care | |
| Average age | 42 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% | Male, 15.5% Female, 84.5% |
| 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% |