A personal care worker is responsible for providing quality health care services for elders and disabled persons. Personal care workers are usually employed in a private household setting or a special healthcare institution, assisting patients with their daily activities, and monitoring their conditions. They update the patients' medical charts, administer medication from the physician's prescriptions, and manage their food intake. A personal care worker must be highly-organized, especially when attending to patients' needs, inquiries, and concerns.

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Personal Care Worker Responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real personal care worker resumes representing typical tasks they are likely to perform in their roles.

  • Manage provider network to include verifying claims and benefits for healthcare providers/members and insurance companies.
  • Assist in transfers using a gate belt or a hoyer lift.
  • Use a Hoyer lift to transport patient out of bed to their wheel chair
  • Perform light maintance which include switching window screens and storm windows, installing and removing air conditioning units.
  • Care for mentally and physically disable individuals, bathing, feeding, house cleaning duties, tolieting, medicines, CPR certify
  • Travele to different client homes to assist with ADL's i.e., laundry, bathing, grooming, cleaning, etc.
  • Assist developmentally delay and behaviorally demanding individuals with ADL's.
  • Provide transportation, assistance and companionship for elderly and persons with disabilities.
  • Provide personal cares, companionship and community integration to individuals who have developmental disabilities
  • Promote continuity of care by accurately and completely communicating to other caregivers the status of patients for which care is provided.
  • Assist with monitoring timelines to ensure that all IEP meetings and assessments are completed.
  • Provide chemo teachings prior to the first cycle of chemotherapy.
  • Provide colostomy care and administer medication for pain management in accordance with current physician recommendations.

Personal Care Worker Job Description

Perhaps the hardest question to answer when deciding on a career as a personal care worker is "should I become a personal care worker?" You might find this info to be helpful. When compared to other jobs, personal care worker careers are projected to have a growth rate described as "much faster than average" at 36% from 2018 through 2028. This is in accordance with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What's more, is that the projected number of opportunities that are predicted to become available for a personal care worker by 2028 is 1,185,800.

Personal care workers average about $14.18 an hour, which makes the personal care worker annual salary $29,490. Additionally, personal care workers are known to earn anywhere from $22,000 to $38,000 a year. This means that the top-earning personal care workers make $17,000 more than the lowest earning ones.

It's hard work to become a personal care worker, but even the most dedicated employees consider switching careers from time to time. Whether you're interested in a more challenging position or just looking for a fresh start, we've compiled extensive information on becoming a nanny, baby sitter, companion, and provider.

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Personal Care Worker Skills and Personality Traits

We calculated that 24% of Personal Care Workers are proficient in Patients, Home Health, and Good Communication. They’re also known for soft skills such as Detail oriented, Integrity, and Interpersonal skills.

We break down the percentage of Personal Care Workers that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Patients, 24%

    Administered medications and ensured patients were given appropriate health and nutrition support.

  • Home Health, 20%

    Provided home health personal and supportive cares primarily for individuals with Cerebral Palsy

  • Good Communication, 13%

    Maintain good communication with entire support team.

  • In-Home Care, 12%

    Provide in-home care for physically disabled client including: hygiene maintenance such as bathing, skin care, and oral care.

  • Companionship, 5%

    Provided personal cares, companionship and community integration to individuals who have developmental disabilities

  • Patient Care, 2%

    Provided high-quality patient care and safety.

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"patients," "home health," and "good communication" aren't the only skills we found personal care workers list on their resumes. In fact, there's a whole list of personal care worker responsibilities that we found, including:

  • Arguably the most important personality trait for a personal care worker to have happens to be detail oriented. An example from a resume said this about the skill, "home health aides and personal care aides must adhere to specific rules and protocols and carefully follow instructions to help take care of clients" Additionally, other resumes have pointed out that personal care workers can use detail oriented to "specialized in defiant children/teens accurately dispensed medicine and completed detailed records diverse meal preparation"
  • Another commonly found skill for being able to perform personal care worker duties is the following: integrity. According to a personal care worker resume, "home health aides and personal care aides should make clients feel comfortable when they tend to personal activities, such as helping a client bathe." Check out this example of how personal care workers use integrity: "established trust with patients and cultivated positive climate to encourage open communication. "
  • Another skill that is quite popular among personal care workers is interpersonal skills. This skill is very critical to fulfilling every day responsibilities as is shown in this example from a personal care worker resume: "home health aides and personal care aides must work closely with clients" This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "provide a high level of customer service and client relations based on outstanding communication and interpersonal skills. "
  • In order for certain personal care worker responsibilities to be completed, the job requires the skill "physical stamina." According to a personal care worker resume, "home health aides and personal care aides should be comfortable performing physical tasks" As an example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies: "provided companionship and full care assistance to individuals with mental/physical disabilities. "
  • See the full list of personal care worker skills.

    We've found that 19.2% of personal care workers have earned a bachelor's degree. Furthermore, 2.4% earned their master's degrees before becoming a personal care worker. While it's true that some personal care workers have a college degree, it's generally possible to become one with only a high school degree. In fact, one out of every two personal care workers did not spend the extra money to attend college.

    Those personal care workers who do attend college, typically earn either a nursing degree or a business degree. Less commonly earned degrees for personal care workers include a medical assisting services degree or a health care administration degree.

    Once you've obtained the level of education you're comfortable with, you might start applying to companies to become a personal care worker. We've found that most personal care worker resumes include experience from CARE, InnovAge, and Trinity Health. Of recent, CARE had 24 positions open for personal care workers. Meanwhile, there are 7 job openings at InnovAge and 6 at Trinity Health.

    If you're interested in companies where personal care workers make the most money, you'll want to apply for positions at Tyson Foods, Erickson Senior Living, and Hospice of The Valley. We found that at Tyson Foods, the average personal care worker salary is $34,305. Whereas at Erickson Senior Living, personal care workers earn roughly $33,626. And at Hospice of The Valley, they make an average salary of $33,625.

    View more details on personal care worker salaries across the United States.

    We also looked into companies who hire personal care workers from the top 100 educational institutions in the U.S. The top three companies that hire the most from these institutions include Private Inc, Northeast Arc, and At Home Care.

    In general, personal care workers fulfill roles in the professional and health care industries. While employment numbers are high in those industries, the personal care worker annual salary is the highest in the professional industry with $29,488 as the average salary. Meanwhile, the government and health care industries pay $28,880 and $28,057 respectively. This means that personal care workers who are employed in the professional industry make 2.3% more than personal care workers who work in the hospitality Industry.

    The three companies that hire the most prestigious personal care workers are:

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    What Nannys Do

    Nannies are family employees who are primarily responsible for taking care of children in the family's house. They are usually tapped to take care of the kids while the parents are at work or away on vacation. Their responsibilities include preparing food for the children, feeding the children, bathing them, dressing them up, ensuring that they take a nap, playing with them, and tucking them to bed at night. They also ensure that the schedule set by the parents is being followed. They may also do other household chores such as cleaning, watering the plants, washing the dishes, among others.

    In this section, we compare the average personal care worker annual salary with that of a nanny. Typically, nannies earn a $10,772 higher salary than personal care workers earn annually.

    Even though personal care workers and nannies have vast differences in their careers, a few of the skills required to do both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require cpr, meal prep, and household chores in the day-to-day roles.

    There are some key differences in responsibilities as well. For example, a personal care worker responsibilities require skills like "patients," "home health," "good communication," and "in-home care." Meanwhile a typical nanny has skills in areas such as "kids," "child care," "first aid aed," and "transport children." This difference in skills reveals how truly different these two careers really are.

    Nannies tend to make the most money in the non profits industry by averaging a salary of $41,844. In contrast, personal care workers make the biggest average salary of $29,488 in the professional industry.

    Nannies tend to reach similar levels of education than personal care workers. In fact, nannies are 1.0% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

    What Are The Duties Of a Baby Sitter?

    A Baby Sitter is responsible for the welfare and safety of children while their parents or guardian are away. The tasks will vary on the age, behavior, or needs of the children. However, most of the time, a Baby Sitter must supervise the children's activities in a friendly and fun manner, prepare meals, assist in bathing or dressing, and get them to bed. There are also instances when the Baby Sitter must do some light chores, such as cleaning up after the kids or washing the dishes.

    Next up, we have the baby sitter profession to look over. This career brings along a higher average salary when compared to a personal care worker annual salary. In fact, baby sitters salary difference is $1,482 higher than the salary of personal care workers per year.

    While the salary may be different for these job positions, there is one similarity and that's a few of the skills needed to perform certain duties. We used info from lots of resumes to find that both personal care workers and baby sitters are known to have skills such as "cpr," "meal prep," and "nutritious meals. "

    While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, several resumes showed us that personal care worker responsibilities requires skills like "patients," "home health," "good communication," and "in-home care." But a baby sitter might use skills, such as, "child care," "kids," "homework assignments," and "family friends."

    It's been discovered that baby sitters earn higher salaries compared to personal care workers, but we wanted to find out where baby sitters earned the most pay. The answer? The finance industry. The average salary in the industry is $48,994. Additionally, personal care workers earn the highest paychecks in the professional with an average salary of $29,488.

    On the topic of education, baby sitters earn similar levels of education than personal care workers. In general, they're 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    How a Companion Compares

    A companion is responsible for assisting sick and recovered patients, as well as the elderly. Companions perform housekeeping duties, ensuring that a facility is well-maintained and safe for the use of the patients. They also monitor the patients' medication, prepare their meals based on a medical professional's prescription, support them on their daily activities, respond to the patients' needs and special requests as allowed, and report any developments to their family or guardians. A companion must be compassionate enough to extend physical and emotional support, depending on the client's condition.

    The third profession we take a look at is companion. On an average scale, these workers bring in lower salaries than personal care workers. In fact, they make a $244 lower salary per year.

    Using personal care workers and companions resumes, we found that both professions have similar skills such as "patients," "home health," and "companionship," but the other skills required are very different.

    Some important key differences between the two careers are a few of the skills necessary to fulfill responsibilities. Some examples from personal care worker resumes include skills like "good communication," "in-home care," "urinals," and "pcw," whereas a companion might be skilled in "provide emotional support," "patient safety," "customer service," and "direct care. "

    Interestingly enough, companions earn the most pay in the non profits industry, where they command an average salary of $30,973. As mentioned previously, personal care workers highest annual salary comes from the professional industry with an average salary of $29,488.

    Companions are known to earn similar educational levels when compared to personal care workers. Additionally, they're 0.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

    Description Of a Provider

    Health care providers are health professionals and health organizations offering health care treatment and diagnosis services. These professionals play significant roles with patients through consultation, treatment, and advice. The health care they provide is of different variations. They even perform other procedures depending on the needs of the patients. Their responsibilities include comprehensive care and specialist work. Also, they help in duties, medication, and housekeeping. They transport clients to and from errands, activities, and appointments.

    Now, we'll look at providers, who generally average a higher pay when compared to personal care workers annual salary. In fact, the difference is about $32,422 per year.

    While their salaries may vary, personal care workers and providers both use similar skills to perform their jobs. Resumes from both professions include skills like "patients," "in-home care," and "companionship. "

    While some skills are shared by these professions, there are some differences to note. "home health," "good communication," "care plan," and "meal planning" are skills that have shown up on personal care workers resumes. Additionally, provider uses skills like healthcare, mental health, customer service, and social work on their resumes.

    Now, let's take a closer look at the financials in each career. The health care industry tends to pay more for providers with an average of $55,214. While the highest personal care worker annual salary comes from the professional industry.

    The average resume of providers showed that they earn similar levels of education to personal care workers. So much so that the likelihood of them earning a Master's Degree is 4.3% more. Additionally, they're more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree by 0.7%.