Top 12 Patient Care Associate Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive field of healthcare, standing out as a patient care associate takes a blend of hands-on clinical know-how and people-first finesse. Shape your resume to spotlight the skills that matter, and you’ll show hiring teams you can deliver steady, compassionate, accurate care when it counts.
Patient Care Associate Skills
- CPR Certified
- EHR Proficiency
- Phlebotomy
- Vital Signs Monitoring
- Patient Transport
- HIPAA Compliance
- Wound Care
- Epic Systems
- Cerner Millennium
- Basic Life Support (BLS)
- Medical Terminology
- Infection Control
1. CPR Certified
CPR Certified means a Patient Care Associate has completed formal training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and can perform evidence-based techniques to restore breathing and circulation during emergencies.
Why It's Important
CPR certification equips you to act in the first critical minutes of a cardiac or respiratory emergency—maintaining blood flow to the brain and vital organs until advanced care arrives. Those minutes matter.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Keep skills sharp with practice, refreshers, and feedback.
Regular practice: Train with manikins and, when possible, feedback devices to dial in compression depth, rate, and recoil.
Stay current: Review the latest CPR guidelines from recognized organizations and incorporate updates into your routine.
Advance your training: Add ACLS or PALS if your unit serves those populations; broaden your readiness for complex scenarios.
Peer drills: Run short team simulations and ask for targeted feedback on roles, timing, and communication.
Renew on time: Most certifications require renewal every two years—don’t let it lapse.
Small, steady refreshers build muscle memory so you can act fast and clean under pressure.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
2. EHR Proficiency
EHR proficiency means you can navigate electronic health record systems to document care, find key data, reconcile information, and support safe handoffs without getting bogged down.
Why It's Important
Accurate, timely documentation drives care coordination, safety alerts, orders, and metrics. Clean charts reduce errors and keep teams aligned.
How to Improve EHR Proficiency Skills
Structured training: Complete your organization’s modules and sandbox practice; explore role-based tip sheets.
Daily reps: Use the system often and purposefully—shortcuts, favorites, and templates speed you up.
Mentor moments: Shadow a power user for an hour and borrow their workflow tricks.
Update readiness: When the system changes, attend the quick-turn briefings and skim release notes.
Help desk partnership: Log issues and request tweaks; small optimizations compound.
How to Display EHR Proficiency Skills on Your Resume
3. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy is the safe collection of blood for testing, transfusion, or procedures—site selection, aseptic technique, and patient reassurance all rolled together.
Why It's Important
Accurate blood draws power diagnostics and treatment decisions. Clean technique reduces hemolysis, contamination, and repeat sticks.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Technique drills: Practice angle, depth, and stabilization on task trainers; refine tourniquet timing and order of draw.
Safety first: Follow bloodborne pathogen and sharps protocols without exception.
Patient communication: Explain each step; coach breathing; reduce anxiety to reduce movement.
Vein-finding strategies: Warm compresses, gravity, hydration cues, and palpation—not just what you see.
Constructive feedback: Ask experienced staff to watch and critique; record your common misses and fix them.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
4. Vital Signs Monitoring
Vital signs monitoring means measuring and trending temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and often SpO2—then speaking up when numbers stray or patterns shift.
Why It's Important
Early changes whisper before they shout. Spotting trends enables faster interventions and safer care.
How to Improve Vital Signs Monitoring Skills
Refresh fundamentals: Revisit proper cuff sizes, patient positioning, and device calibration.
Precision over speed: Verify outliers; repeat suspicious readings rather than charting noise.
Context matters: Compare to baseline, meds, activity, and diagnosis; trend over time, not in isolation.
Tech savvy: Learn alarm thresholds, auto-upload workflows, and documentation shortcuts.
Communicate clearly: Report critical values promptly and document who was notified and when.
Protocol alignment: Follow unit-specific monitoring frequency and escalation pathways.
How to Display Vital Signs Monitoring Skills on Your Resume
5. Patient Transport
Patient transport is the safe, coordinated movement of patients between rooms, departments, and procedures—without losing time or risking harm.
Why It's Important
Care depends on being in the right place at the right time. Smooth transports cut delays, reduce falls, and keep schedules intact.
How to Improve Patient Transport Skills
Core training: Master body mechanics, transfer techniques, and equipment use (wheelchairs, stretchers, lifts).
Tight communication: Confirm readiness with sending and receiving staff; clarify precautions and lines/tubes.
Equipment checks: Inspect brakes, rails, oxygen, and battery levels before you roll.
Patient comfort and safety: Explain the plan, use belts and side rails, protect privacy, and monitor IVs, drains, and catheters.
Route planning: Pick efficient paths and timing to dodge bottlenecks; group trips when appropriate.
Feedback loop: Track delays and near-misses; propose small process tweaks that add up.
How to Display Patient Transport Skills on Your Resume
6. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means guarding patient health information—privacy, security, and breach response—across paper, conversation, and electronic systems.
Why It's Important
Trust hinges on confidentiality. Following HIPAA protects patients, meets legal requirements, and reduces costly risks.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Know the rules: Understand Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification standards and your role in each.
Minimum necessary: Access only what you need to do your job; no curiosity clicks.
Secure handling: Lock screens, shield documents, store and dispose of records properly, and use approved, encrypted channels.
Speak softly: Prevent hallway handoffs and elevator updates; verify identities before sharing info.
Report quickly: Escalate suspected breaches or misdirected faxes/emails immediately.
Refresh training: Complete annual modules and scenario-based drills; policies change.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
7. Wound Care
Wound care covers assessment, cleansing, dressing selection, protection of surrounding skin, pain control, and vigilant monitoring for infection—always tailored to wound type and patient factors.
Why It's Important
Good wound care prevents infection, speeds healing, and reduces complications like dehiscence and pressure injuries.
How to Improve Wound Care Skills
Aseptic habits: Hand hygiene, gloves, and clean fields every time.
Thorough assessment: Measure, stage if applicable, and note exudate, odor, edges, and periwound skin—track trends.
Right dressing, right time: Match moisture needs and exudate level; protect intact skin and avoid maceration.
Moisture balance: Keep the wound moist, not soggy; support autolytic debridement when appropriate.
Patient teaching: Elevation, offloading, nutrition, hydration, and signs that warrant a call.
Keep learning: Review updates from wound care education resources and collaborate with WOC nurses.
How to Display Wound Care Skills on Your Resume
8. Epic Systems
Epic Systems provides a widely used EHR platform that helps teams document, coordinate, and track patient care across settings.
Why It's Important
When you know Epic well, you document faster, find data cleanly, and reduce charting errors—freeing more time for patients.
How to Improve Epic Systems Skills
Role-based training: Complete your site’s Epic modules tied to your workflows.
SmartTools mastery: Build SmartPhrases, SmartLinks, and favorites to streamline repetitive documentation.
Personalize: Tweak layouts, filters, and reports so essential info surfaces first.
Community tips: Learn from super users and internal forums; small shortcuts pay off daily.
Feedback matters: Report friction points so analysts can optimize build for frontline use.
How to Display Epic Systems Skills on Your Resume
9. Cerner Millennium
Cerner Millennium—now part of Oracle Health and often referred to as Oracle Health Millennium—is an EHR platform that unifies patient records and workflows so clinicians can access real-time data across the continuum of care.
Why It's Important
For Patient Care Associates, strong Millennium skills mean faster documentation, smoother teamwork, and safer, more consistent care.
How to Improve Cerner Millennium Skills
Tailor the view: Customize frequently used components and favorites to reduce clicks.
Focused training: Ask for role-specific sessions that mirror your unit’s tasks and order sets.
Leverage communication tools: Use embedded messaging and handoff features to tighten coordination.
Go mobile when available: Mobile charting can speed vitals, intake/output, and bedside documentation.
Close the loop: Share feedback with IT on pain points so build can evolve with frontline needs.
How to Display Cerner Millennium Skills on Your Resume
10. Basic Life Support (BLS)
BLS covers high-quality CPR, AED use, and choking relief for adults, children, and infants—core lifesaving skills every clinical team depends on.
Why It's Important
BLS bridges the gap between recognition and advanced care. Fast, correct action saves lives.
How to Improve Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills
Follow current guidance: Review updated BLS recommendations regularly and fold them into practice.
Hands-on refreshers: Re-certify on schedule and take interim practice sessions to keep technique crisp.
Simulation: Run team drills to sharpen roles, timing, and closed-loop communication.
Feedback: Use devices and instructor input to perfect compression quality and ventilation.
Team communication: Practice brief, clear commands and acknowledgments during mock codes.
How to Display Basic Life Support (BLS) Skills on Your Resume
11. Medical Terminology
Medical terminology is the shared language of healthcare, used to describe anatomy, conditions, tests, and treatments with precision.
Why It's Important
Clear terminology prevents misunderstanding, speeds documentation, and keeps teams aligned around the same clinical picture.
How to Improve Medical Terminology Skills
Daily exposure: Read charts, orders, and patient education materials; look up unfamiliar terms immediately.
Flashcards and spaced repetition: Short, frequent sessions beat cramming.
Chunk by systems: Group terms by body system or disease process to build meaning and memory.
Use it in context: Work new terms into notes and handoffs so they stick.
Peer learning: Quick quizzes with coworkers make recall faster and more natural.
How to Display Medical Terminology Skills on Your Resume
12. Infection Control
Infection control includes hand hygiene, PPE, environmental cleaning, safe device handling, and isolation precautions—practical steps that stop pathogens from traveling.
Why It's Important
Preventing transmission protects patients, staff, and families. It also cuts length of stay and avoids outbreaks.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Hand hygiene without fail: Before and after patient contact, after glove removal, and after touching surroundings.
PPE done right: Choose the correct gear, don and doff in the right order, and dispose of it safely.
Clean environment: Disinfect high-touch surfaces and equipment with approved agents (check your facility’s EPA List N equivalents).
Stay updated: Follow your facility’s current isolation and cleaning protocols; attend refreshers.
Vaccination awareness: Keep immunizations current and encourage patients per guidelines.
Early reporting: Escalate fever spikes, new drainage, or unexpected cultures quickly.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
