Top 12 State Tested Nursing Assistant Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive field of healthcare, State Tested Nursing Assistants (STNAs) stand out by showing a sharp blend of technical ability and human warmth on their resumes. Spotlighting these skills proves your training, your grit, and your commitment to safe, compassionate care. It also helps hiring managers see you as a dependable, ready-to-go teammate.
State Tested Nursing Assistant Skills
- Patient Care
- Vital Signs
- CPR Certified
- EHR Software
- Wound Dressing
- Infection Control
- HIPAA Compliance
- Mobility Assistance
- ADL Support
- Charting Accuracy
- Medication Administration
- Phlebotomy Skills
1. Patient Care
Patient care, in the STNA role, means direct, basic care: assisting with bathing, grooming, toileting, feeding, comfort, safety, and hygiene while observing, reporting, and supporting emotional needs under nursing supervision.
Why It's Important
Because comfort and safety aren’t optional. Good care prevents complications, builds trust, supports recovery, and steadies the entire care team’s work.
How to Improve Patient Care Skills
Blend heart, skill, and sharp observation.
Active listening: Let patients finish. Reflect back what you heard. Small cues reveal big needs.
Empathy in action: Validate feelings, not just symptoms. A calm tone, eye contact, gentle pacing—these matter.
Attention to change: New pain, confusion, skin changes, reduced intake—notice and report swiftly.
Team rhythm: Confirm tasks, hand off clearly, document promptly so nothing falls through the cracks.
Keep learning: Refresh skills regularly—safe transfers, dementia care approaches, skin care, fall prevention.
Fold these into your routine and care quality rises fast.
How to Display Patient Care Skills on Your Resume
2. Vital Signs
Vital signs are core measurements: temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and often oxygen saturation and pain level. They offer a quick lens into how the body is doing right now.
Why It's Important
They flag trouble early. They confirm when treatment is working—or not. For STNAs, accurate vitals are the foundation of timely, safe care.
How to Improve Vital Signs Skills
Focus on accuracy first, then on supportive coaching.
Blood pressure: Use the correct cuff size. Seat the patient, feet flat, arm at heart level, rest for 5 minutes. Recheck if the number looks off.
Heart rate: Count a full minute if irregular. Confirm device readings with manual checks when needed.
Respiratory rate: Observe discreetly so the pattern is natural. Count a full minute for irregular or fragile patients.
Temperature: Use the same site and method consistently. Understand when oral readings aren’t appropriate.
Oxygen saturation: Warm hands, remove nail polish/acrylics if possible, minimize motion for reliable readings.
Report any sharp shift or concerning pattern to the nurse immediately.
How to Display Vital Signs Skills on Your Resume
3. CPR Certified
Being CPR certified means you’ve completed approved training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation and can perform it according to current guidelines.
Why It's Important
Cardiac and respiratory emergencies don’t wait. Immediate, correct CPR can keep oxygen flowing until advanced help arrives.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Skills fade without practice. Keep them sharp.
Refresh regularly: Take recertification and booster sessions before your card expires.
Hands-on practice: Use manikins to reinforce compression depth, rate, recoil, and ventilation technique.
Stay current: Review updates from recognized training bodies so your approach matches the latest evidence.
Mock codes: Participate in drills. Build muscle memory and calm under pressure.
AED familiarity: Practice pad placement and prompts until it feels automatic.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
4. EHR Software
EHRs are digital records that store, track, and share patient information across the care team, enabling quick access to the details needed for safe, coordinated care.
Why It's Important
Accurate, timely charting in the EHR reduces errors, speeds handoffs, and supports safer decisions. It also protects patients—and you.
How to Improve EHR Software Skills
Think proficiency, not just familiarity.
Role-based training: Master the STNA workflows you use daily—vitals entry, intake/output, ADLs, safety checks, skin observations.
Templates and smart tools: Use facility-approved templates, macros, and shortcuts to chart faster without losing detail.
Data quality: Enter objective facts, correct time stamps, approved abbreviations, and complete fields. Double-check patient identifiers every time.
Privacy first: Lock screens, follow minimum-necessary access, and never share passwords. Log out—always.
Mobile/workstation etiquette: If mobile devices are allowed, update in real time and sync promptly. Report glitches so IT can fix them.
How to Display EHR Software Skills on Your Resume
5. Wound Dressing
Wound dressing means cleaning, protecting, and covering a wound with appropriate sterile materials to support healing and prevent infection—following the care plan and nurse directions.
Why It's Important
Proper dressing shields the wound, manages moisture, and reduces contamination. Healing speeds up; complications slow down.
How to Improve Wound Dressing Skills
Precision and cleanliness win.
- Hand hygiene: Before and after care. No shortcuts.
- Gloving and PPE: Don and doff correctly. Change gloves if you touch non-sterile surfaces.
- Prepare the field: Cleanse per orders (often normal saline), pat dry surrounding skin, protect periwound.
- Use ordered products: Follow the wound care plan. Don’t add antiseptics or ointments unless prescribed.
- Right dressing, right fit: Match dressing type to exudate, depth, and location. Secure without strangling the skin.
- Change on schedule: Replace when saturated or as ordered. Watch for redness, odor, warmth, or increased pain.
- Document clearly: Size, depth (if measured), drainage amount/type, odor, tissue appearance, and patient tolerance.
Report any sudden change immediately.
How to Display Wound Dressing Skills on Your Resume
6. Infection Control
Infection control is the set of practices that prevent the spread of pathogens in healthcare settings: hand hygiene, PPE, cleaning/disinfecting, safe handling of sharps and waste, respiratory etiquette, and isolation precautions when required.
Why It's Important
It protects patients, coworkers, and visitors. It limits outbreaks, shortens stays, and safeguards those most at risk.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Make it habitual.
Hand hygiene: Perform at every “moment” of care—before touching a patient, before aseptic tasks, after body fluid exposure, after patient contact, after touching surroundings.
PPE savvy: Choose the right gear for the task. Practice proper sequence for donning and doffing to avoid contamination.
Environmental cleaning: Wipe high-touch surfaces and equipment with approved disinfectants at the right contact times.
Sharps safety: Never recap. Use puncture-proof containers. Report exposures immediately.
Transmission-based precautions: Contact, droplet, airborne—know the difference and apply correctly.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
7. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means protecting patient health information—spoken, written, and electronic—by following privacy and security rules every time you access, share, or store it.
Why It's Important
Privacy builds trust. Compliance avoids breaches, fines, and harm to the people you serve.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Guard information like it’s your own.
Minimum necessary: Access only what you need to do your job. Nothing more.
Private conversations: Discuss PHI out of earshot and only with authorized staff.
Secure handling: Lock screens, store documents safely, shred per policy, and use approved communication channels.
Password hygiene: Strong, unique logins. Never share credentials. Log out when you step away.
Report quickly: If you suspect a breach or misdirected information, alert your supervisor or privacy officer immediately.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
8. Mobility Assistance
Mobility assistance is helping patients move safely—bed mobility, transfers, standing, walking—while protecting dignity and preventing falls.
Why It's Important
Movement preserves strength, circulation, mood, and independence. Safe support prevents injuries to patients and staff.
How to Improve Mobility Assistance Skills
Safety first, then confidence.
Body mechanics: Neutral spine, wide base, bend the knees. Get help or use equipment for heavier transfers.
Gait belt use: Place snugly at the waist unless contraindicated. Guide—don’t yank.
Assistive devices: Check fit and function of walkers, canes, wheelchairs. Lock brakes before transfers.
Clear communication: Explain steps, count down, and move together on a cue.
Fall prevention: Non-slip footwear, clutter-free paths, call light within reach, alarms as ordered.
How to Display Mobility Assistance Skills on Your Resume
9. ADL Support
ADL support covers daily basics—bathing, dressing, grooming, eating, toileting, and mobility. Delivered with respect and patience, always.
Why It's Important
Meeting daily needs preserves dignity, reduces complications, and makes life feel livable—one routine at a time.
How to Improve ADL Support Skills
Personal, safe, steady.
Person-centered approach: Honor preferences, routines, and cultural needs. Offer choices when possible.
Promote independence: Cue and assist instead of taking over. Use adaptive tools and set up tasks for success.
Skin and oral care: Inspect pressure points, keep skin dry and moisturized, and support daily oral hygiene.
Nutrition and hydration: Monitor intake, use safe feeding techniques, and report swallowing concerns promptly.
Safety checks: Temperature of water, proper bed height, call bell access, environmental hazards removed.
How to Display ADL Support Skills on Your Resume
10. Charting Accuracy
Charting accuracy means documenting patient care and observations completely, objectively, and on time, using approved formats and abbreviations.
Why It's Important
Clear records protect patients, support continuity of care, and keep the facility compliant. If it isn’t documented, it didn’t happen.
How to Improve Charting Accuracy Skills
Write like safety depends on it—because it does.
Chart in real time: Document right after care whenever possible to avoid gaps or guesswork.
Objective language: Facts over opinions. Quantify intake, output, distances, times, and measurements.
Approved abbreviations: Use facility standards only. When in doubt, write it out.
Verify identifiers: Patient name, DOB, room—then chart. Prevents cross-charting errors.
Review before submitting: Scan for typos, wrong units, or missing fields. Correct promptly if you find an error.
How to Display Charting Accuracy Skills on Your Resume
11. Medication Administration
For STNAs, medication administration typically falls outside independent practice. Scope varies by state and facility. STNAs generally do not give medications unless they hold additional credentials (for example, medication aide) and are directed by a licensed nurse. They may assist with tasks like reminders, fetching water, observing for side effects, and documenting per policy.
Why It's Important
Medication safety prevents harm. Even when only assisting, careful observation, correct documentation, and timely reporting reduce errors.
How to Improve Medication Administration Skills
Respect scope, support safety.
Know your scope: Follow state law and facility policy. When unsure, ask the nurse before proceeding.
Five rights awareness: If assisting, confirm the right patient, medication, dose, route, and time—under nurse supervision.
eMAR familiarity: If your facility uses electronic MARs, learn the workflow, alerts, and double-check steps.
Observation and reporting: Watch for dizziness, rash, swelling, confusion, pain changes. Report immediately.
Communication: Clarify unclear orders with the nurse. Never guess. Document only what you directly observed or performed.
How to Display Medication Administration Skills on Your Resume
12. Phlebotomy Skills
Phlebotomy involves drawing blood safely for testing. For many STNAs, this is not a standard duty unless additional training and facility policy allow it. When permitted, it requires solid technique, infection control, and patient communication.
Why It's Important
Accurate blood collection supports diagnosis and treatment. Done poorly, it risks injury, contamination, and redraws.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
If your role includes phlebotomy, build skill deliberately.
Hands-on practice: Use simulation first, then supervised venipunctures until consistent and confident.
Anatomy refresh: Know vein selection, depth, angle, and when to choose alternatives.
Aseptic technique: Strict hand hygiene, proper site prep, and safe glove use every time.
Order of draw and labeling: Follow tube sequence and label immediately at the bedside with full identifiers.
Patient communication: Explain the process, position comfortably, and observe for lightheadedness or distress.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills Skills on Your Resume
