Patient Care Assistant

A Patient Care Assistant provides hands-on personal care and support to patients in residential aged care facilities, community health settings, or in-home care programmes. They assist with activities of daily living such as bathing, dressing, toileting, and mobility, whilst monitoring and reporting changes in patient condition to nursing staff. The role requires compassion, physical capability, and adherence to infection control and duty of care standards under the Aged Care Quality Standards and state-based health regulations.

Assist patients with personal hygiene tasks including bathing, showering, grooming, and toileting whilst maintaining dignity and respecting cultural preferences. Support patients with dressing, undressing, and selecting appropriate clothing for weather and activities. Help patients with mobility, transfer techniques, and repositioning using safe manual handling practices and assistive devices as required. Monitor and record observations of patient behaviour, appetite, continence, skin condition, and mood, reporting changes to registered nurses. Prepare and assist patients with meals and drinks, noting dietary requirements and assisting those with swallowing difficulties or feeding tubes. Maintain a clean and safe patient environment, including changing bed linen, sanitising communal areas, and following infection control protocols including hand hygiene and use of personal protective equipment. Respond promptly to patient call bells and requests, providing reassurance and emotional support to patients and family members. Document care provided in patient electronic or paper records, including times of personal care, fluid intake, and any incidents or concerns.

The standard entry pathway requires a Certificate II or III (ABS skill level 4). Specific qualification requirements vary by employer and state. Some employers may accept equivalent experience. Check yourcareer.gov.au for available courses and dewr.gov.au/skills-reform/free-tafe for subsidised training options.

The physical toll is significant: lifting and transferring patients causes back injuries that can end careers early. You'll also face emotionally draining situations, including watching residents decline and die, often without proper time to process it between shifts.

Jobs concentrate in metro areas where aged care facilities cluster. Regional areas have fewer facilities but higher competition for each role. Aged care employment follows population density. In-home care work is more dispersed but still primarily metro-based. Remote work doesn't exist in this role.

Published for ANZSCO unit group 4233, the wider group this job sits in, not for this job on its own.

This is the median for full-time employees who are not managers and are paid at the adult rate, before tax and salary sacrifice. It is a guide to what the work pays, not a wage rate.

Source: ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.

• Accept own accountabilitycore
• Active Listeningcore
• Advise on healthcare users' informed consentcore
• Attention to Detailcore
• Case Note Documentationcore
• Confidentiality and Privacy Compliancecore
• Cultural Awareness and Sensitivitycore
• Empathy and Emotional Intelligencecore
• Health Terminology Literacycore
• Incident Reportingcore
• Policy and Procedure Adherencecore
• Professional Boundaries Maintenancecore
• Team Collaborationcore
• Time Management and Prioritisationcore
• Trauma-Informed Communicationcore
• Verbal Communicationcore
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Conflict De-escalation
• Continuous Learning and Upskilling
• Disability Awareness and Inclusion
• Health Record Administration
• Inclusive Practice
• Multitasking
• Practice Management Software (e.g., Best Practice, MedicalDirector)
• Risk Identification

• ABS OSCA 2024, occupation definition and task statements
• ABS Survey of Employee Earnings and Hours, May 2025, customised report.
• ABS, 2021 Census of Population and Housing based on usual place of residence (Custom Report). OSCA Experimental Estimates.

Role data is drawn from official Australian Government sources, and each figure names where it comes from. Where a role is not in the ABS classification, the page shows no government figures for it. Data may not reflect every local variation.

Where our numbers come from.

What Patient Care Assistant workers move into, from ten years of tax records.

Last updated: 30 October 2026