Top 12 Health Care Assistant Skills to Put on Your Resume
Healthcare runs on teamwork, steadiness, and a thousand small acts done right. Health care assistants glue the day together—comforting patients, keeping the wheels turning, catching the little things before they turn into big ones. A sharp resume that spotlights real, ready-to-use skills will push you forward and help hiring managers see your value fast.
Health Care Assistant Skills
- CPR Certified
- Patient Care
- EMR (Electronic Medical Records)
- Vital Signs
- HIPAA Compliance
- Phlebotomy
- EKG Interpretation
- Wound Care
- Medication Administration
- Cerner
- Epic Systems
- Basic Life Support
1. CPR Certified
CPR certification shows you’ve been trained and tested in cardiopulmonary resuscitation—a lifesaving response when breathing or pulse suddenly stops. It’s quick action under pressure, done safely and correctly.
Why It's Important
Seconds matter. CPR keeps oxygenated blood moving to the brain and vital organs until advanced care arrives. It turns panic into a plan and can be the difference between life and loss.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Keep your CPR sharp and current by leaning into practice and updates.
Refresh routinely: Follow the latest American Heart Association guidance and renew on schedule.
Get hands-on: Choose in-person refreshers with manikins and feedback devices; muscle memory wins.
Level up: Add ACLS or similar advanced courses if your role or unit benefits.
Drill scenarios: Simulation builds calm under pressure and smooths team coordination.
Stay fit: Quality compressions are physical; stamina helps you keep depth and rate consistent.
Consistency beats cramming. Practice, update, repeat.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
2. Patient Care
Patient care is the day-to-day craft: assisting with daily living, protecting safety, offering a steady presence, documenting clearly, and escalating concerns at the right moment. It’s dignity and detail in equal measure.
Why It's Important
Good care shortens stays, calms fear, and stops problems early. It lifts the whole team and makes outcomes better, one interaction at a time.
How to Improve Patient Care Skills
Communicate plainly: Short, clear phrases. Confirm understanding. Loop back with teach-back.
Lead with empathy: Listen first. Small comforts—warm blankets, adjusted lighting—go a long way.
Sharpen observation: Note subtle changes in mood, color, breathing, appetite. Document and report quickly.
Own safety: Hand hygiene, falls prevention, correct IDs, safe transfers. Nonnegotiable habits.
Keep learning: New devices, new protocols, new pathways—stay current and curious.
How to Display Patient Care Skills on Your Resume
3. EMR (Electronic Medical Records)
EMR/EHR systems are the digital chart: history, meds, allergies, orders, results, imaging, care plans, the works. They connect teams and timelines so care doesn’t miss a beat.
Why It's Important
Fast, accurate documentation and quick access to the record improve safety and coordination. Clean data drives clean decisions.
How to Improve EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Skills
Train deeply: Complete role-specific modules and shadow power users to learn shortcuts and smart tools.
Use templates wisely: Customize favorites, order sets, and note templates to reduce clicks without copy-paste clutter.
Protect data quality: Enter complete, precise info; avoid duplications; reconcile meds carefully.
Think interoperability: Know how outside records, labs, and imaging flow in—and how to find them.
Guard privacy: Minimum necessary access, strong passwords, two-factor, locked screens, phishing awareness.
Prepare for downtime: Know paper backups and the process for back-entry when systems return.
How to Display EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Skills on Your Resume
4. Vital Signs
Vital signs capture the body’s status in a snapshot: temperature, pulse, respirations, and blood pressure. Many settings also track oxygen saturation and pain scores. Accurate measurement and interpretation are bread-and-butter skills.
Why It's Important
Trends tell stories. Changes point to bleeding, sepsis, pain, anxiety, dehydration, respiratory compromise—sometimes quietly at first. The sooner you spot it, the sooner the team acts.
How to Improve Vital Signs Skills
Master technique: Right cuff size and position, full minute counts when needed, patient at rest, proper probe placement.
Validate equipment: Calibrated devices, charged batteries, clean probes, reliable leads.
Know normals—and red flags: Age- and condition-specific ranges, and when to escalate without delay.
Trend, don’t guess: Compare to baseline, verify outliers with a repeat, and document precisely.
Close the loop: Communicate urgent changes immediately and follow through on orders.
How to Display Vital Signs Skills on Your Resume
5. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means guarding protected health information—paper, digital, spoken—through sound policies, secure tech, and disciplined behavior.
Why It's Important
Privacy builds trust. Compliance prevents breaches, fines, and harm. Patients deserve control over their information; you make that real.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Know the rules: Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification standards—plus your facility’s policies.
Minimum necessary: Access only what your task demands. No curiosity clicks.
Secure communications: Approved messaging tools, verified recipients, no PHI on personal devices.
Lock it down: Strong passwords, multi-factor, screen locks, clean desks, sealed bins for disposal.
Report fast: Lost badges, misdirected faxes, suspicious emails—escalate immediately.
Respect rights: Timely responses to record requests, amendments, and restrictions.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
6. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is drawing blood safely and cleanly for tests, transfusions, and monitoring. Calm hands, clear explanations, correct tubes—plus a gentle touch.
Why It's Important
Good samples mean good results. Fewer sticks, fewer complications, less anxiety, faster answers.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Perfect the basics: Patient ID, order review, correct tubes, order of draw, labeling at bedside.
Aseptic technique: Hand hygiene, gloves, clean site, no re-palpating after prepping, secure dressings.
Site selection: Vein mapping, warm compresses, proper tourniquet time, needle angle and stabilization.
Comfort matters: Explain steps, manage needle anxiety, position patients safely, watch for syncope.
Learn from feedback: Ask seasoned staff to critique your technique; track your success rates.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
7. EKG Interpretation
EKG (ECG) interpretation is reading the heart’s electrical story—rate, rhythm, intervals, and patterns that point to ischemia, electrolyte shifts, or conduction problems. For many assistants, the aim is recognition and rapid escalation, not full diagnostics.
Why It's Important
Early recognition of dangerous rhythms speeds intervention. That can stabilize a patient before things slide.
How to Improve EKG Interpretation Skills
Lock in normal: Understand sinus rhythm, intervals, axis basics, and what a clean tracing looks like.
Pattern practice: Review lots of strips—AFib, flutter, SVT, VT, heart blocks, STEMI indicators, electrolyte clues.
Measure, don’t guess: Use calipers or grid counting; confirm rate and intervals methodically.
Context counts: Correlate with symptoms, vitals, meds, and recent procedures.
Validate with mentors: Discuss tricky strips with experienced clinicians and learn their mental checklists.
How to Display EKG Interpretation Skills on Your Resume
8. Wound Care
Wound care blends assessment, infection control, moisture balance, and protection. Assistants support dressing changes, monitor progress, and escalate concerns under nurse or provider direction.
Why It's Important
Good wound care prevents infection, reduces pain, accelerates healing, and protects function. It’s comfort today and better outcomes tomorrow.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Clean technique first: Hand hygiene, gloves, sterile/clean supplies as ordered, and a tidy field.
Assess methodically: Measure size and depth, note exudate, odor, tissue type, edges, surrounding skin.
Match dressing to need: Moisture balance is key—absorb when heavy, hydrate when dry, protect fragile skin.
Watch for red flags: Spreading redness, warmth, increased pain, purulent drainage, fever—report promptly.
Support the whole person: Encourage protein-rich nutrition, offloading/pressure relief, and adherence to plan.
Document clearly: Use consistent descriptors and photos per policy to track healing trends.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
9. Medication Administration
Medication administration for assistants varies by region and facility. Where permitted, it means preparing and giving meds under supervision, verifying orders, and monitoring for effects—safely and by the book.
Why It's Important
Right drug, right patient, right dose, right route, right time—and often right documentation and right reason. Accuracy here protects lives.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Know your scope: Understand exactly what your license or role allows in your state and facility.
Standardize checks: Use barcode scanning where available and practice independent double-checks for high-alert meds.
Clarify orders: Resolve unclear or incomplete orders before proceeding; no assumptions.
Monitor and educate: Watch for side effects, check vitals when indicated, and reinforce patient understanding.
Document immediately: Real-time eMAR updates reduce errors and improve continuity.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
10. Cerner
Oracle Health (formerly Cerner) provides electronic health record tools that support charting, orders, results, scheduling, and care coordination across settings.
Why It's Important
Fluency in the platform cuts down clicks, lowers errors, and speeds the handoff between teams. Less hunting, more helping.
How to Improve Cerner Skills
Complete role-based training: Focus on PowerChart, documentation workflows, and your unit’s build.
Personalize the view: Create favorites, quick orders, smart templates, and filters that match your daily tasks.
Learn search savvy: Master patient lookup, results review, and activity tabs so nothing hides from you.
Use help resources: Tip sheets, super users, and IT rounds can solve sticky workflow issues fast.
Give feedback: Report build glitches and request tweaks—small changes can save hours.
How to Display Cerner Skills on Your Resume
11. Epic Systems
Epic is a widely used EHR that ties together documentation, orders, results, messaging, and billing—across clinics, hospitals, and home care.
Why It's Important
When you move quickly and accurately in Epic, patients move smoothly through care. It’s a force multiplier for the whole team.
How to Improve Epic Systems Skills
Role-tuned training: Focus on the modules you touch—Inpatient, Ambulatory, MyChart workflows, device interfaces.
Personalize: SmartTexts, SmartPhrases, SmartLinks, and navigator tweaks slice documentation time.
Go mobile when allowed: Learn Haiku/Canto if enabled to speed bedside tasks and real-time updates.
Master results and In Basket: Triage messages, route efficiently, and close the loop with clear notes.
Share tips: Peer forums and super-user hours spread best practices fast.
How to Display Epic Systems Skills on Your Resume
12. Basic Life Support
Basic Life Support (BLS) covers recognition and response to life-threatening emergencies: high-quality CPR, AED use, and team-based coordination until advanced care takes over.
Why It's Important
BLS keeps oxygen flowing and buys time. It’s foundational in clinics, hospitals, long-term care—anywhere people might crash without warning.
How to Improve Basic Life Support Skills
Stay current: Follow the latest guidance and renew before expiration.
Drill the details: Compression depth and rate, full recoil, minimal pauses, and effective ventilations.
Use simulation: Practice mock codes, role-switching, and closed-loop communication.
Seek feedback: Real-time manikin metrics and instructor notes drive rapid improvement.
Build stamina: Rotating compressors and baseline fitness keep quality high during long events.
How to Display Basic Life Support Skills on Your Resume
