Top 12 Certified Nurse Aide Skills to Put on Your Resume
Crafting a strong CNA resume means showing the right mix: hands-on clinical know-how and steady, human-centered care. Call out specific, proven skills. Show you can handle the grind, the surprises, and the small moments that matter to patients and families.
Certified Nurse Aide Skills
- Patient Care
- CPR Certified
- Vital Signs
- EHR (Electronic Health Records)
- HIPAA Compliance
- Wound Dressing
- Infection Control
- ADL Assistance
- Medical Terminology
- Phlebotomy
- Mobility Support
- Charting Software
1. Patient Care
Patient care for a CNA means day-to-day support with safety, comfort, hygiene, mobility, nutrition, and observation—delivered under nursing supervision with empathy and vigilance.
Why It's Important
It protects dignity, eases distress, and speeds recovery. The way you show up—reliably, calmly—shapes outcomes and trust.
How to Improve Patient Care Skills
Communicate clearly: Ask open questions, listen without rushing, confirm understanding. Simple, direct, kind.
Prioritize safety: Fall precautions, call light within reach, bed alarms as ordered, clean dry surfaces, correct PPE—every time.
Personalize routines: Preferences for bathing, meals, positioning, and sleep matter; note and honor them when possible.
Hourly rounding: Check pain, position, personal needs, and possessions; small touchpoints prevent big problems.
Escalate early: New pain, confusion, shortness of breath, skin changes—report promptly using SBAR-style updates.
De-escalation and empathy: Soft tone, patience, choices when possible; reduce anxiety before it snowballs.
Document what you see: Objective notes, timely charting, clear trends.
How to Display Patient Care Skills on Your Resume
2. CPR Certified
CPR certification shows you can respond to cardiac and respiratory emergencies with established lifesaving protocols.
Why It's Important
Seconds count. Competent CPR can bridge the gap to advanced care and change outcomes dramatically.
How to Improve CPR Certified Skills
Recert on schedule: Renew regularly and review updates to techniques and compression/ventilation ratios.
Practice on manikins: Build muscle memory—depth, recoil, rate, and minimal pauses.
Mock codes: Join drills, practice roles, and practice switching compressors every two minutes.
Use feedback devices when available: Real-time metrics tighten technique.
Debrief: After real or simulated events, note what went well and what to tweak.
Advance when appropriate: Consider BLS refreshers or pediatric-focused training if your unit requires it.
How to Display CPR Certified Skills on Your Resume
3. Vital Signs
Core measurements—temperature, pulse, respirations, blood pressure, and often oxygen saturation—paint the quick picture of patient status.
Why It's Important
Trends whisper before crises shout. Accurate values guide interventions and reveal change.
How to Improve Vital Signs Skills
Accurate technique: Correct cuff size and arm position, quiet patient, proper probe placement, full minute counts when irregular.
Validate abnormal results: Recheck, switch limbs or devices if needed, and compare to baseline.
Know normal ranges by population: Geriatric variances, post-op expectations, and condition-specific targets.
Time and trend: Chart promptly and flag meaningful shifts, not just single outliers.
Equipment readiness: Charged batteries, calibrated devices, clean sensors.
How to Display Vital Signs Skills on Your Resume
4. EHR (Electronic Health Records)
EHR systems store real-time clinical data—history, meds, orders, notes—so the team can coordinate care quickly and safely.
Why It's Important
Clean, timely documentation reduces errors, improves handoffs, and keeps everyone rowing in the same direction.
How to Improve EHR (Electronic Health Records) Skills
Learn your facility’s workflows: Know where to chart ADLs, I&Os, vitals, skin checks, and safety rounds without hunting.
Use templates and shortcuts: Smart phrases, checklists, and favorites slash clicks and typos.
Chart in real time: Document close to the event; memory fades, details drift.
Data hygiene: Spell names right, verify MRNs, match orders to tasks, avoid copy-forward errors.
Privacy first: Lock screens, verify recipients, keep voices low, and follow the minimum necessary rule.
Ongoing training: Take refreshers after system updates and share tips across shifts.
How to Display EHR (Electronic Health Records) Skills on Your Resume
5. HIPAA Compliance
HIPAA compliance means safeguarding protected health information—paper, digital, and spoken—by following privacy and security rules.
Why It's Important
It protects patients, upholds trust, and prevents costly violations.
How to Improve HIPAA Compliance Skills
Minimum necessary: Access and share only what’s needed for the task at hand.
Secure handling: Face sheets turned down, bins closed, devices locked, passwords strong, no shared logins.
Quiet conversations: Discuss care out of public earshot; verify identities before sharing details.
Clean screens and clean desks: Log off when stepping away, avoid unattended charts in open areas.
Report promptly: If something goes wrong—misdirected fax, missing paperwork—escalate immediately.
Refresh training: Annual reviews keep rules current and habits sharp.
How to Display HIPAA Compliance Skills on Your Resume
6. Wound Dressing
Wound dressing covers cleaning, protecting, and supporting tissue to heal—following the care plan and aseptic technique.
Why It's Important
The right dressing, applied gently at the right time, shields against infection and speeds healing.
How to Improve Wound Dressing Skills
Assess before you act: Measure, note exudate, look for odor, tunneling, slough, or granulation.
Aseptic habits: Hand hygiene, gloves, clean field, and sterile supplies when required.
Match dressing to need: Absorptive for heavy drainage, moisture-retentive for dry wounds, non-adherent for fragile skin—per orders.
Protect the periwound: Barrier films and gentle removal to prevent skin tears.
Comfort matters: Premedicate if ordered, position well, and minimize friction.
Document precisely: Size, stage if appropriate, drainage character, odor, and patient tolerance.
Report changes fast: Red streaking, warmth, sudden pain, or increased drainage—notify the nurse.
How to Display Wound Dressing Skills on Your Resume
7. Infection Control
Infection control is the daily discipline of stopping germs from spreading: hand hygiene, PPE, cleaning, and safe practices from start to finish.
Why It's Important
It protects patients, coworkers, and you. One lapse can snowball into an outbreak.
How to Improve Infection Control Skills
Hand hygiene without shortcuts: Before and after every patient contact, after glove removal, and after touching surroundings.
PPE done right: Correct type, correct order for donning and doffing, and proper disposal.
Clean and disinfect: High-touch surfaces and patient equipment on schedule, with the correct contact time.
Standard and transmission-based precautions: Know when to switch from standard to contact, droplet, or airborne.
Sharps safety: No recapping, prompt disposal, and immediate reporting of exposures.
Stay current: Follow facility policies and updates on emerging pathogens.
How to Display Infection Control Skills on Your Resume
8. ADL Assistance
ADL assistance covers bathing, dressing, toileting, eating, grooming, and mobility—supporting comfort and independence.
Why It's Important
Daily routines anchor dignity. Thoughtful assistance reduces complications and lifts quality of life.
How to Improve ADL Assistance Skills
Promote independence: Set up supplies, cue steps, and let patients do what they safely can.
Body mechanics: Protect your back and theirs—wide base, neutral spine, bend at the knees, and use assistive devices.
Fall prevention: Non-slip footwear, clear pathways, locked wheels, and supervised transfers.
Respect privacy and preferences: Ask permission, explain each step, cover appropriately.
Pain and fatigue cues: Pace tasks, take breaks, and reposition for comfort.
Assistive tools: Gait belts, grab bars, shower chairs, dressing aids—use them correctly.
Coordinate with the team: Share changes in ability, appetite, or mood so care plans can adjust.
How to Display ADL Assistance Skills on Your Resume
9. Medical Terminology
A shared clinical language built from roots, prefixes, and suffixes—used to describe conditions, tests, procedures, and anatomy with precision.
Why It's Important
Clear terms prevent confusion, sharpen documentation, and streamline teamwork.
How to Improve Medical Terminology Skills
Break it down: Learn common roots, prefixes, and suffixes; decode unfamiliar words on the fly.
Flashcards and repetition: Short daily drills beat marathon cramming.
Use it in context: Read orders and notes aloud, then rephrase in plain language to confirm meaning.
Teach-back: Explain terms to peers; teaching cements memory.
Keep a term log: New words you encounter, plus definitions, reviewed weekly.
How to Display Medical Terminology Skills on Your Resume
10. Phlebotomy
Phlebotomy involves drawing blood via venipuncture. CNAs typically assist with preparation, labeling, transport, and aftercare unless state policy and facility training authorize them to draw.
Why It's Important
Accurate, timely specimens drive diagnosis and treatment. Good prep and careful follow-through prevent redraws and delays.
How to Improve Phlebotomy Skills
Know your scope: Follow state regulations and facility policy; obtain formal training if venipuncture is included.
Preparation: Verify patient identity, confirm orders, gather correct tubes, and label at bedside.
Assist efficiently: Position the patient, support the limb, and calm anxiety with steady reassurance.
Specimen handling: Correct inversion counts, timely transport, and temperature requirements as indicated.
Infection prevention: Hand hygiene, gloves, and safe sharps practices—no exceptions.
Reflect and refine: Seek feedback from experienced staff and adjust technique.
How to Display Phlebotomy Skills on Your Resume
11. Mobility Support
Mobility support includes safe transfers, ambulation, repositioning, and basic range-of-motion—geared to preserve strength and prevent injury.
Why It's Important
Movement wards off deconditioning, pressure injuries, and falls. Independence grows step by step.
How to Improve Mobility Support Skills
Assess before moving: Check weight-bearing status, devices in use, and recent changes in condition.
Use gait belts and devices correctly: Walkers, canes, wheelchairs—fit and technique matter.
Safe transfers: Bed to chair, chair to commode—lock wheels, cue actions, count down.
Progressive mobility: From dangling to short walks, increase as tolerated and ordered.
Prevent pressure injuries: Reposition at ordered intervals, float heels, smooth linens.
Collaborate: Coordinate with nursing and therapy for consistency and goals.
How to Display Mobility Support Skills on Your Resume
12. Charting Software
Digital charting tools capture care in the moment—ADLs, vitals, intake/output, safety checks, and observations.
Why It's Important
Accurate charts inform decisions, reduce duplication, and keep care plans aligned across shifts.
How to Improve Charting Software Skills
Master the layout: Know where every common task lives to avoid click-wandering.
Use favorites and templates: Prebuild frequent notes to speed consistent documentation.
Keyboard shortcuts: Faster than mousing, fewer errors over time.
Chart at the bedside when appropriate: Real-time entries are cleaner and more complete.
Quality checks: Review before submitting—correct patient, correct time, complete fields.
Stay trained: Take update sessions after system changes and share peer tips.
How to Display Charting Software Skills on Your Resume
