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Rehabilitation assistant vs health care assistant

The differences between rehabilitation assistants and health care assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a rehabilitation assistant has an average salary of $35,219, which is higher than the $34,892 average annual salary of a health care assistant.

The top three skills for a rehabilitation assistant include rehabilitation, patients and patient care. The most important skills for a health care assistant are patients, customer service, and healthcare.

Rehabilitation assistant vs health care assistant overview

Rehabilitation AssistantHealth Care Assistant
Yearly salary$35,219$34,892
Hourly rate$16.93$16.77
Growth rate12%36%
Number of jobs19,317242,669
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 52%Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Average age4350
Years of experience12-

What does a rehabilitation assistant do?

A rehabilitation assistant performs support tasks to assist nurses or therapists in providing care services to patients and maintaining the smooth flow of operations in clinics. Their daily tasks often include greeting patients, answering inquiries, helping patients during treatments and training, and providing personal care by assisting them in hygienic and physical tasks. They may also prepare and process documents, handle calls and correspondence, organize files, liaise with external business partners such as vendors and suppliers, maintain records, and arrange schedules.

What does a health care assistant do?

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.

Rehabilitation assistant vs health care assistant salary

Rehabilitation assistants and health care assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Rehabilitation AssistantHealth Care Assistant
Average salary$35,219$34,892
Salary rangeBetween $26,000 And $47,000Between $25,000 And $47,000
Highest paying CityNew York, NYAntioch, CA
Highest paying stateIllinoisAlaska
Best paying companyHealth AllianceMedical University of South Carolina
Best paying industryTelecommunicationEducation

Differences between rehabilitation assistant and health care assistant education

There are a few differences between a rehabilitation assistant and a health care assistant in terms of educational background:

Rehabilitation AssistantHealth Care Assistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 52%Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Most common majorPsychologyNursing
Most common collegeNew York University-

Rehabilitation assistant vs health care assistant demographics

Here are the differences between rehabilitation assistants' and health care assistants' demographics:

Rehabilitation AssistantHealth Care Assistant
Average age4350
Gender ratioMale, 26.1% Female, 73.9%Male, 18.8% Female, 81.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 11.7% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 6.5% White, 58.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 2.1%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 Percentage11%5%

Differences between rehabilitation assistant and health care assistant duties and responsibilities

Rehabilitation assistant example responsibilities.

  • Manage organization and cleanliness of therapy room and equipment.
  • Provide manual manipulation and cuing of patient lower extremities facilitating rehabilitation of gait patterns during body-weight support treadmill training therapy sessions.
  • Lead emergency drills and CPR training.
  • Respect patients rights, and comply with HIPPA confidentiality guidelines.
  • Direct personal care to clients, transportation, assist with therapies, diabetic train, CPR certify
  • Assist with ADL's such as bathing, toileting, grooming, dressing, eating, and ambulation.
  • Show more

Health care assistant example responsibilities.

  • Monitor / enforce OSHA standards and coordinate / lead daily, weekly, and monthly safety meetings to educate staff.
  • Manage ventilator settings, suction tracheostomy, tube-feeding assistance.
  • Facilitate physical therapy exercises, positional rotation, monitor medication compliance and effects, provide companionship, carry out ADL's.
  • care professional, extremely competent, providing guidance and counseling for rehabilitation of mentally disturb patients.
  • Process consults requests for electrophysiology, EKG and other services.
  • Assist train staff in the event of cardiac arrest and actively participate in CPR.
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Rehabilitation assistant vs health care assistant skills

Common rehabilitation assistant skills
  • Rehabilitation, 16%
  • Patients, 14%
  • Patient Care, 8%
  • Customer Service, 8%
  • Money Management, 5%
  • Mental Illness, 5%
Common health care assistant skills
  • Patients, 20%
  • Customer Service, 11%
  • Healthcare, 10%
  • Patient Appointments, 8%
  • Direct Patient Care, 8%
  • Medical Equipment, 7%

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