Top 12 Nursing Attendant Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive field of nursing attendants, differentiating your resume with the right set of skills is crucial for landing your desired position. This article outlines the top 12 skills that can make your resume stand out to employers, showcasing your capabilities and dedication to providing exceptional patient care.
Nursing Attendant Skills
- CPR Certified
- Patient Monitoring
- Wound Care
- Vital Signs
- HIPAA Compliance
- EMR (Electronic Medical Records)
- Infection Control
- Mobility Assistance
- Medication Administration
- Basic Life Support (BLS)
- Patient Hygiene
- Charting Software
1. CPR Certified
CPR Certified indicates that a Nursing Attendant has completed training and demonstrated proficiency in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, a life-saving response when breathing or heartbeat stops.
Why It's Important
CPR certification arms you with the know-how to act fast in cardiac and respiratory emergencies. That speed boosts survival odds, safeguards patients, and reinforces a culture of safety.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Skill sharpness fades. Keep it vivid and ready.
Refresh routinely: Renew every two years (or sooner if your employer requires). Review updates from the American Heart Association or Red Cross to stay aligned with current guidance.
Practice with intention: Use manikins and simulation drills to ingrain correct depth, rate, and recoil. Build muscle memory.
Advance your scope: Consider First Aid or ACLS coursework if your role interfaces with higher-acuity patients.
Debrief and refine: After any event or mock code, reflect. Seek feedback. Adjust technique.
Stay calm-ready: Train mental readiness—brief breathing resets, role clarity, and team communication cues.
Consistency is everything. Small, repeated practice beats one big cram session.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
2. Patient Monitoring
Patient monitoring means observing and tracking status—vitals, symptoms, behavior—using clinical tools and sound judgment to keep patients safe.
Why It's Important
Early changes whisper before they shout. Monitoring catches deterioration sooner, guides interventions, and steadies recovery.
How to Improve Patient Monitoring Skills
Make observation second nature. Let tools help, not replace your eyes and ears.
Use your systems well: Learn your facility’s monitoring and alert workflows (for example, Epic or Cerner). Know where data lives and how to escalate.
Tighten communication: Report clearly and concisely. Use SBAR or your unit’s preferred handoff structure.
Sharpen observation: Notice the small stuff—skin tone shifts, breathing pattern changes, new confusion, appetite changes.
Follow frequency and parameters: Stick to ordered vitals schedules and notify when thresholds are crossed. Document promptly.
Respect devices and policy: If wearables or remote monitors are used, follow facility policy for setup, cleaning, and data review.
How to Display Patient Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
3. Wound Care
Wound care covers cleaning, protecting, and observing wounds to prevent infection and support healing. Nursing Attendants assist under nursing guidance, keep patients comfortable, and watch for red flags.
Why It's Important
Good wound care prevents infection, reduces pain, and speeds recovery. Poor care delays healing and invites complications.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Assess with structure: Note location, size, depth, tissue type, exudate, edges, odor, and surrounding skin. Compare over time.
Prioritize clean technique: Hand hygiene, gloves, clean field. Use saline or facility-approved solutions unless otherwise ordered.
Match dressing to need: Moisture balance matters. Use the ordered dressing; know when to seek guidance if saturation or maceration appears.
Know infection signs: Spreading redness, warmth, swelling, increased pain, foul drainage, fever. Escalate immediately.
Document and report: Record changes precisely. Communicate any deterioration without delay.
Coach patients gently: Reinforce offloading, nutrition, and home-care instructions given by the nurse.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
4. Vital Signs
Vital signs—temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and often oxygen saturation—offer a rapid snapshot of physiological stability. Accurate measurement and timely reporting are foundational.
Why It's Important
These numbers map the patient’s trajectory. Changes steer care decisions and trigger interventions before harm takes hold.
How to Improve Vital Signs Skills
Blood pressure: Use correct cuff size, proper positioning, and quiet rest before measurement. Track trends and report significant deviations. Lifestyle counseling follows clinical direction.
Heart rate: Count full minutes when irregular. Note rhythm quality (regular, irregular, thready, bounding). Escalate unusual findings.
Respirations: Observe rate, depth, effort, and use of accessory muscles. Position for easier breathing. Encourage smoking cessation and simple breathing exercises when appropriate.
Temperature: Use the ordered method (oral, tympanic, temporal, axillary, rectal). Respond to fever or hypothermia per protocol—cooling or warming measures as directed.
Oxygen saturation: Check probe placement and perfusion. For low readings, verify equipment, encourage deep breaths, and notify if still below parameters; ensure oxygen therapy is set as ordered.
Always follow your facility’s protocols and the plan of care.
How to Display Vital Signs Skills on Your Resume
5. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means guarding Protected Health Information—spoken, written, or electronic—so only those who need it for care, payment, or operations can access it.
Why It's Important
Patients trust us with their stories. Protecting privacy is the law, the standard, and the expectation. Breaches erode trust and carry consequences.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Know the rules: Understand what counts as PHI, when it can be shared, and with whom.
Train regularly: Complete required refreshers. Policies evolve; so should your practice.
Speak safely: Discuss PHI in private areas. Keep voices low. Avoid casual conversations about patients.
Limit access: Open only the charts you need for your duties. Log off when stepping away.
Secure the physical space: Lock paper records. Angle screens away from public view. Shred when required.
Protect passwords: Don’t share. Use strong passphrases. Follow device encryption policies.
Report fast: If you suspect a breach or misdirected information, escalate immediately.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
6. EMR (Electronic Medical Records)
EMRs are the digital charts clinicians use to document care, track histories, and coordinate treatment. For Nursing Attendants, they streamline access to orders, notes, and task lists.
Why It's Important
When you document accurately and find information quickly, care speeds up and errors slow down. EMR skill is a force multiplier.
How to Improve EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Skills
Get trained deeply: Complete all modules, then ask for role-specific tips from super users on your unit.
Streamline entries: Use templates, smart phrases, and checklists where allowed to improve consistency and speed.
Prioritize accuracy: Enter data in the correct fields, in real time when possible. Double-check patient identity every time.
Stay compliant: Follow privacy policies and audit rules. Never copy/paste forward errors.
Offer feedback: If a workflow creates delays or confusion, share specifics with your informatics or IT team.
How to Display EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Skills on Your Resume
7. Infection Control
Infection control bundles the practices that block pathogens: hand hygiene, personal protective equipment, cleaning, sharps safety, and isolation protocols.
Why It's Important
It protects patients, staff, and visitors. Break one link in the chain of transmission, and you stop spread.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Hand hygiene first: Clean hands before and after every patient contact, after glove removal, and after touching surroundings.
Use PPE correctly: Right gear, right time. Donning and doffing in the correct order to avoid contamination.
Clean and disinfect: Wipe high-touch surfaces and equipment using facility-approved products and contact times.
Sharps safety: Never recap. Dispose immediately into approved containers.
Respiratory etiquette: Cover coughs and sneezes. Mask patients as indicated. Keep tissues and sanitizer within reach.
Isolation know-how: Follow signage and precautions (contact, droplet, airborne). Cluster care to reduce exposures.
Teach as you go: Show patients and families simple prevention steps—hand hygiene, mask use, and cleaning.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
8. Mobility Assistance
Mobility assistance means helping patients move safely—repositioning, transfers, standing, ambulation—with the right techniques and devices.
Why It's Important
Safe movement prevents falls, pressure injuries, and fear. It preserves independence and dignity.
How to Improve Mobility Assistance Skills
Assess before you act: Gauge strength, balance, cognition, pain, and lines/tubes. Use validated fall-risk tools per policy.
Use proper body mechanics: Neutral spine, wide base, bend at knees. When in doubt, get help.
Leverage equipment: Gait belts, slide sheets, transfer boards, mechanical lifts—use the right device for the task and the patient.
Follow the care plan: Adhere to weight-bearing restrictions and therapy recommendations. Reassess tolerance often.
Coach and cue: Short, clear instructions. Pace to the patient. Celebrate small wins to build confidence.
How to Display Mobility Assistance Skills on Your Resume
9. Medication Administration
Medication administration means delivering the right medication to the right patient, in the right dose, by the right route, at the right time—and documenting it accurately, per your scope and facility policy.
Why It's Important
Precision prevents harm. Correct timing and dosing support effective treatment and safer outcomes.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Master the “rights”: Patient, drug, dose, route, time—plus indication, documentation, education, and response when applicable.
Use technology well: Barcode scanning and eMAR reduce errors. Resolve alerts appropriately; avoid workarounds.
Know red flags: Common interactions, look-alike/sound-alike meds, high-alert drugs. When uncertain, pause and clarify.
Communicate changes: New orders, held doses, side effects—loop in the nurse promptly and document clearly.
Educate patients: In plain language, explain purpose and expected effects within your scope. Encourage questions.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
10. Basic Life Support (BLS)
BLS covers the immediate actions to keep someone alive in an emergency: high-quality CPR, early AED use, and basic airway support until advanced help arrives.
Why It's Important
When seconds stretch and stakes spike, BLS keeps oxygen flowing and buys time for definitive care.
How to Improve Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills
Stay current: Review the latest national guidelines; standards update periodically.
Drill hands-on: Practice compressions and ventilations on manikins with real-time feedback.
Simulate scenarios: Team-based simulations sharpen roles, communication, and sequencing under pressure.
Work the AED: Practice power-on, pad placement, clear-before-shock, and resume compressions fast.
Reflect and improve: After training or events, debrief what went well and what didn’t.
How to Display Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills on Your Resume
11. Patient Hygiene
Patient hygiene includes bathing, oral care, grooming, linen changes, toileting, and skin protection—tailored to the patient’s condition.
Why It's Important
Clean, comfortable patients rest better, heal faster, and face fewer infections. Small comforts carry big weight.
How to Improve Patient Hygiene Skills
Hand hygiene, always: Before and after care. Gloves when indicated, changed between tasks.
Gentle, thorough care: Warm water, appropriate cleansers, soft towels. Protect privacy and dignity. Reassess skin as you go.
Skin protection: Moisturize dry areas, manage moisture, and use barrier creams for incontinence as ordered.
Linen and clothing: Keep bedding dry and wrinkle-free. Change promptly if soiled to prevent skin breakdown.
Incontinence care: Timely assistance, perineal care with front-to-back technique, and scheduled toileting when appropriate.
Engage the patient: Encourage participation to the extent possible. Explain each step to reduce anxiety.
How to Display Patient Hygiene Skills on Your Resume
12. Charting Software
Charting software helps record care, tasks, and observations so the whole team can see accurate, up-to-date information.
Why It's Important
Clear documentation improves communication, supports legal and regulatory standards, and strengthens patient safety.
How to Improve Charting Software Skills
Learn the shortcuts: Templates, smart phrases, and quick actions can cut clicks and standardize documentation.
Chart in real time: Document as close to the event as possible to improve accuracy and reduce missed details.
Be precise: Right patient, right field, right units. Avoid vague wording; include objective observations.
Protect privacy: Lock screens, follow role-based access, and avoid copying forward errors or irrelevant info.
Use tools wisely: If voice-to-text is available, proofread carefully. Verify any auto-populated data.
Seek training and feedback: Ask super users for efficiency tips and report workflow pain points to informatics/IT.
How to Display Charting Software Skills on Your Resume
