Top 12 Orderly Skills to Put on Your Resume

Building a sharp, credible resume takes more than job titles. For roles that hinge on order, precision, and calm under pressure, you need to surface the skills that keep a facility humming. Show how you protect routines, prevent mistakes, and move care forward. That’s how you stand out.

Orderly Skills

1. Patient Transport
2. CPR Certified
3. Vital Signs Monitoring
4. Electronic Health Records (EHR)
5. HIPAA Compliance
6. Infection Control
7. Medical Terminology
8. Basic Life Support (BLS)
9. Wound Care
10. Safety Protocols
11. Mobility Assistance
12. Equipment Sterilization

1. Patient Transport

Patient transport means safely moving patients between rooms, departments, and services using the right methods and equipment—wheelchairs, stretchers, beds—while protecting dignity and comfort.

Why It's Important

It keeps care on time. It keeps patients safe. And it bridges the gaps between diagnostics, treatment, and recovery without adding risk or stress.

How to Improve Patient Transport Skills

Speed helps, but safety rules. So does empathy. Sharpen both.

1. Training: Practice safe handling, body mechanics, and device operation until it’s automatic.

2. Communication: Confirm identity, destination, and clinical needs. Handoff cleanly. Narrate the plan to the patient.

3. Equipment Readiness: Check brakes, straps, batteries, rails. Keep backups close.

4. Patient Comfort: Adjust positions, pace, and temperature. Protect privacy. Reassure.

5. Feedback Loop: Track delays, near-misses, and pain points. Fix patterns, not just one-offs.

Done well, transport becomes invisible—quietly enabling care to happen exactly when it should.

How to Display Patient Transport Skills on Your Resume

2. CPR Certified

CPR certification shows you’re trained to respond when a heart or breathing emergency strikes. It’s proof you can act fast and correctly.

Why It's Important

Seconds matter. With CPR skills ready to go, you can stabilize until advanced help arrives—and that can change outcomes.

How to Improve CPR Skills

1. Refresh Often: Review the latest recognized CPR guidelines and updates regularly.
2. Practice: Use manikins with feedback. Drill until depth, rate, and recoil are consistent.
3. Advance: Add ACLS or PALS if your unit sees those emergencies.
4. Assess and Adjust: Ask instructors for targeted critiques; fix technique drift.
5. Stay Fit: Strong compressions are physical. Build stamina and upper-body strength.

How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume

3. Vital Signs Monitoring

Monitoring vital signs means measuring temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and oxygen saturation accurately, documenting clearly, and escalating anomalies promptly.

Why It's Important

These numbers whisper early warnings. Catching a trend before it crashes prevents harm.

How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills

1. Technique First: Calibrate devices, size cuffs correctly, position patients right, and repeat if results don’t make sense.

2. Consistency: Follow unit protocols for timing and thresholds. Standardization slashes errors.

3. Smart Tools: Use validated monitors and, where available, systems that flow readings directly into the chart.

4. Clinical Context: Compare to baseline and meds. Ask, “Is this expected?” If not, escalate.

5. Patient Engagement: Explain what you’re doing. Calm breathing often yields better readings.

How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume

4. Electronic Health Records (EHR)

EHRs are real-time digital charts—histories, meds, allergies, orders, results—built to make care safer and coordination easier.

Why It's Important

Orderlies who navigate EHRs cleanly help teams move faster, reduce duplication, and avoid mistakes tied to missing information.

How to Improve Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills

1. Master the Basics: Learn where to find key data, how to document accurately, and how to flag urgent information.

2. Speed with Safety: Use shortcuts and templates wisely, never at the expense of accuracy.

3. Interoperability Awareness: Understand that data may flow across systems via standards like FHIR; verify sources before acting.

4. Privacy and Security: Follow least-necessary access, strong authentication, and clean logouts—every time.

5. Ongoing Training: New features land often. Stay current through refreshers and tip sheets.

How to Display Electronic Health Records (EHR) Skills on Your Resume

5. HIPAA Compliance

HIPAA compliance means protecting patient information—what you view, share, and say—so privacy and security never crack.

Why It's Important

Trust rests on confidentiality. Breaches damage patients and organizations. Compliance keeps both safe.

How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills

1. Know the Rules: Understand what counts as PHI, who can access it, and when it can be shared.

2. Tight Access: Use role-based access, strong passwords, and multi-factor authentication where available.

3. Secure Habits: Lock screens, avoid hallway talk, verify recipients before sharing, and shred when required.

4. Incident Ready: Report suspected breaches immediately. Follow the response plan, document, and learn.

5. Refresh Often: Annual training isn’t a checkbox—treat it like a safety drill.

How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume

6. Infection Control

Infection control is the guardrail against cross-contamination—hand hygiene, PPE, cleaning, disinfection, isolation precautions, and safe waste handling.

Why It's Important

Fewer infections mean safer stays, shorter recoveries, and lower costs. Everyone wins.

How to Improve Infection Control Skills

1. Hand Hygiene: Wash or sanitize before and after every patient or task. No shortcuts.

2. Right PPE, Right Time: Mask, gloves, gowns, eye protection—based on risk and protocol. Don and doff correctly.

3. Clean and Disinfect: Follow contact times. Hit high-touch surfaces and shared equipment without fail.

4. Isolation Savvy: Understand contact, droplet, and airborne precautions. Post signage and comply.

5. Waste and Sharps: Use proper containers, never overfill, and close securely.

6. Stay Current: Protocols evolve. Keep pace with your facility’s latest guidance.

How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume

7. Medical Terminology

Medical terminology is the shared language of care. Knowing it lets you follow orders, chart clearly, and communicate without confusion.

Why It's Important

Precision in words prevents errors in action. That clarity protects patients.

How to Improve Medical Terminology Skills

1. Daily Reps: Study roots, prefixes, suffixes. Five minutes a day compounds fast.

2. Active Use: Work new terms into conversations and documentation (appropriately) to lock them in.

3. Context First: Learn terms in systems—cardio, neuro, ortho—so concepts stick, not just syllables.

4. Teach Back: Explain terms to peers or patients in plain language. If you can translate, you truly understand.

5. Quality Sources: Use reputable texts and in-house resources to avoid outdated or incorrect usage.

How to Display Medical Terminology Skills on Your Resume

8. Basic Life Support (BLS)

BLS covers rapid assessment, high-quality CPR, AED use, and team-based response to sudden cardiac arrest and related emergencies.

Why It's Important

It bridges the gap between collapse and advanced care. That bridge can be the difference.

How to Improve Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills

1. Keep Current: Review recognized BLS guidance annually or when updates drop.
2. Hands-On Drills: Practice compressions and ventilations with feedback devices; aim for consistency under fatigue.
3. Sim Scenarios: Train in realistic cases—lone rescuer, multi-rescuer, obstructed airway, special populations.
4. Debrief: After drills, dissect what worked and what didn’t. Small tweaks add up.
5. Team Talk: Practice closed-loop communication. Clear commands prevent chaos.

How to Display Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills on Your Resume

9. Wound Care

Wound care means assessing, cleaning, protecting, and supporting tissue so it heals cleanly and quickly.

Why It's Important

Good care prevents infection, reduces pain, and shortens recovery. Poor care invites complications.

How to Improve Wound Care Skills

1. Assess: Identify type, size, depth, exudate, edges, and periwound skin. Document clearly.

2. Clean: Use gentle irrigation (often normal saline). Avoid harsh agents that damage healthy tissue unless specifically ordered.

3. Dress Smart: Pick dressings that maintain moisture balance and protect from contamination. Match product to wound needs.

4. Change on Schedule: Follow orders and manufacturer guidance. Watch for maceration or dryness and adjust.

5. Monitor Infection: Redness, swelling, heat, odor, increasing pain, or purulent drainage—report promptly.

6. Support Healing: Encourage nutrition, hydration, offloading, and pressure relief as appropriate.

7. Educate: Teach patients and caregivers about signs to watch and how to keep the site protected.

How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume

10. Safety Protocols

Safety protocols are the day-to-day guardrails that prevent injuries, guide emergency response, and protect patients and staff—from lifts and transfers to fall prevention and violence mitigation.

Why It's Important

Safe systems sustain care. Unsafe ones grind it to a halt.

How to Improve Safety Protocols Skills

1. Thorough Training: Regular refreshers on handling, alarms, fire safety, evacuations, and de-escalation.

2. Hazard Reporting: Make it easy to report near-misses and issues. Fix root causes, not just symptoms.

3. Equipment Checks: Inspect lifts, beds, rails, and emergency gear on a schedule. Tag and remove faulty items immediately.

4. Clear Communication: Use standardized handoffs and signage. When in doubt, pause and verify.

5. Safety Culture: Encourage speaking up. Reward prevention, not just response.

6. Stay Informed: Follow your facility’s latest procedures and occupational safety guidance.

How to Display Safety Protocols Skills on Your Resume

11. Mobility Assistance

Mobility assistance is helping patients move safely—transfers, ambulation, positioning—while protecting joints, skin, and confidence.

Why It's Important

Movement preserves independence. Done wrong, it risks falls and injuries. Done right, it restores momentum.

How to Improve Mobility Assistance Skills

1. Technique: Use proper body mechanics and safe patient handling practices. Know when to call for help.

2. Assistive Devices: Choose and set up walkers, wheelchairs, gait belts, and slide boards correctly. Maintain them.

3. Ergonomics: Adjust bed height, lock wheels, clear paths. Small setups prevent big injuries.

4. Patient-Centered Communication: Explain steps, get consent, and pace to the patient’s capability.

5. Strength and Stamina: Keep yourself fit. Your back will thank you; your patients will benefit.

How to Display Mobility Assistance Skills on Your Resume

12. Equipment Sterilization

Equipment sterilization removes all microbial life from instruments and surfaces using validated methods—steam, dry heat, low-temperature systems, or approved chemicals.

Why It's Important

Sterile tools block infections before they start. That’s patient safety at its core.

How to Improve Equipment Sterilization Skills

1. Pre-Clean: Remove debris promptly after use to protect downstream steps.
2. Match Method: Choose sterilization based on device material and manufacturer instructions.
3. Indicators: Use biological, chemical, and mechanical indicators to verify each cycle.
4. Package Properly: Wrap and seal to maintain sterility until point of use. Label with dates and lot info.
5. Maintain Equipment: Validate cycles, service machines on schedule, and document everything.
6. Train and Audit: Refresh competencies regularly and audit processes for drift.

How to Display Equipment Sterilization Skills on Your Resume