Where a healthcare assistant can go next
12 destinations recorded, ranked by how much of the target role a healthcare assistant already meets. The closer to the top of Table 1, the less there is to learn.
Healthcare assistants work in teams of nurses within the occupational fields of nursing, social care, clinical care and care of people of all age-groups. Healthcare assistants assist in the promotion and restoration of patients' health by providing physical and psychological support to patients, friends and families.
Also known as assistant healthcarer, maternity care assistant, health care assistant, resident care assistant, primary healthcare assistant, elderly care assistant, resident healthcare assistant, patient care assistant.
Service and sales workers 46 skills on file 12 career moves 0 above 60% overlap Closest: physiotherapy assistant, 56%
- 70% and above · short step
- 50 to 70% · real move
- Below 50% · substantial retraining
Table 1 · A bigger jump
Possible, but expect real retraining rather than a sideways step.
- physiotherapy assistant 56% covered · difficulty 57.3
- dental hygienist 54% covered · difficulty 57.7
- dental technician 51% covered · difficulty 55
- maternity support worker 50% covered · difficulty 60.9
- pharmacy assistant 50% covered · difficulty 61.7
- dental chairside assistant 50% covered · difficulty 63.9
- pharmacy technician 49% covered · difficulty 62.5
- nurse assistant 48% covered · difficulty 62.6
- specialist pharmacist 44% covered · difficulty 68.6
- optometrist 43% covered · difficulty 70
- doctors' surgery assistant 42% covered · difficulty 71.2
- specialist biomedical scientist 41% covered · difficulty 71.2
Table 2 · What the job itself asks for
A healthcare assistant needs 32 required skills and areas of knowledge. These 10 are the ones fewest other jobs share, so they say the most about the work.
- convey medical routine information communication, collaboration and creativity
- work under supervision in care communication, collaboration and creativity
- identify abnormalities information skills
- communicate with nursing staff communication, collaboration and creativity
- provide basic support to patients assisting and caring
- work with nursing staff communication, collaboration and creativity
- support nurses communication, collaboration and creativity
- monitor basic patients signs information skills
- educate on the prevention of illness communication, collaboration and creativity
- advise on healthcare users' informed consent communication, collaboration and creativity
Table 3 · Jobs that lead here
The reverse view: occupations whose skills already cover much of what a healthcare assistant does. The figure is how much of this job each one brings.
- paramedic in emergency responses 68% covered · difficulty 42.1
- biomedical scientist 67% covered · difficulty 43.4
- optician 67% covered · difficulty 43.4
- optometrist 67% covered · difficulty 43.4
- audiologist 66% covered · difficulty 44.2
- nurse responsible for general care 66% covered · difficulty 44.1
- physiotherapist 65% covered · difficulty 45.1
- psychotherapist 65% covered · difficulty 45.1
- advanced physiotherapist 64% covered · difficulty 46
- clinical psychologist 64% covered · difficulty 46
Look up another occupation
Healthcare assistant is filed under Service and sales workers, ISCO major group 5. The full index lists all ten groups.
How these figures were compiled
Overlap is how much of the target role is already part of a healthcare assistant’s work. It is directional: the figure for the reverse move differs. Every entry above opens the full comparison for that move: what carries over, what is missing, and where to start. The full method.