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The differences between patient care assistants and medical 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 a medical assistant takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a medical assistant has an average salary of $34,900, 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 medical assistant are patients, vital signs, and patient care.
| Patient Care Assistant | Medical Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $32,799 | $34,900 |
| Hourly rate | $15.77 | $16.78 |
| Growth rate | 9% | 16% |
| Number of jobs | 261,345 | 189,915 |
| Job satisfaction | 5 | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Associate Degree, 24% |
| Average age | 42 | 37 |
| Years of experience | 3 | 12 |
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.
Medical assistants provide support to medical practitioners in both administrative and clerical tasks. They keep and update the patient's medical records, administer medicines under the supervision of a physician, assist during medical examinations, prepare medical samples for laboratory testing, manage the schedule of appointments, and assist the patients with their bills and in filling out needed forms, such as insurance-related documents. Medical assistants should have good communication skills and analytical skills, be organized, and be flexible. They should also have knowledge of how to operate some medical equipment such as x-ray machines.
Patient care assistants and medical assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Patient Care Assistant | Medical Assistant | |
| Average salary | $32,799 | $34,900 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $45,000 | Between $27,000 And $43,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Diego, CA | Vancouver, WA |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Alaska |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Columbia University in the City of New York |
| Best paying industry | Health Care | Health Care |
There are a few differences between a patient care assistant and a medical assistant in terms of educational background:
| Patient Care Assistant | Medical Assistant | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 26% | Associate Degree, 24% |
| Most common major | Nursing | Medical Assisting Services |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between patient care assistants' and medical assistants' demographics:
| Patient Care Assistant | Medical Assistant | |
| Average age | 42 | 37 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 14.4% Female, 85.6% | Male, 10.4% Female, 89.6% |
| 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, 10.2% Unknown, 4.9% Hispanic or Latino, 25.7% Asian, 8.8% White, 49.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 6% |