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Certified nursing assistant skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
Quoted experts
Marina Orobinskaia,
Marina Orobinskaia
Certified nursing assistant example skills

To get a job in nursing, you will need to display an excellent balance of both hard and soft skills on your resume. Some of the most important technical medical skills a certified nursing assistants can possess include acute patient care, experience monitoring vital signs, experience helping patients with personal care, and knowledge of CPR. The exact technical skills needed, however, will depend on your field of work.


When it comes to soft skills, certified nursing assistants will need to be organized, have great communication, and strong leadership while following procedures. Registered nurses need these skills in order to provide the best care to patients and families and to accurately administer physicians' orders.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical certified nursing assistant skills. We ranked the top skills for certified nursing assistants based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 22.8% of certified nursing assistant resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a certified nursing assistant needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 certified nursing assistant skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how certified nursing assistants use patients:
  • Provided quality nursing care in accordance with resident care policies and procedures by showing companionship to elderly and developmentally disabled patients.
  • Delivered high-quality care to patients, assisting them in daily activities and maintaining a homelike environment for residents.

2. Vital Signs

Vital signs are a set of values indicating different body systems' performance. They are measurements of the body's most basic functions. The four major vital signs used in medicine to assess a patient are body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure.

Here's how certified nursing assistants use vital signs:
  • Read and recorded vital signs Completed and submitted clinical documentation in accordance with agency guidelines.
  • Monitored patient vital signs and assisted with medical transportation.

3. Home Health

Here's how certified nursing assistants use home health:
  • Provided in-home health care and management of daily living skills and patient activities; documented and interpreted confidential records and patient information
  • Experienced medical receptionist with customer service experience in working within home health settings.

4. Rehabilitation

Here's how certified nursing assistants use rehabilitation:
  • Followed/implemented physical and occupational rehabilitation plans.
  • Supervised prescribed rehabilitation exercise routines.

5. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how certified nursing assistants use cpr:
  • Skilled in activities of daily living, behavioral management, crisis prevention/intervention and CPR certified.
  • Maintained current CPR certification, able to utilize and obtain appropriate emergency equipment.

6. Quality Care

Here's how certified nursing assistants use quality care:
  • Provide direct quality care to patients including daily monitoring, recording and evaluating of medical conditions.
  • Provided high-quality care to cardiac intensive care patients focusing on preserving dignity and minimizing discomfort.

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7. Care Plan

Here's how certified nursing assistants use care plan:
  • Coordinated with doctors and registered nurses to develop and implement innovative/successful patient-care plans, including assessments, evaluations and nursing diagnoses.
  • Implemented interventions to minimize the effects of disruptive behaviors and participated in care planning to evaluate effectiveness of these interventions.

8. Resident Care

Here's how certified nursing assistants use resident care:
  • Provided prompt resident care within a teamwork environment safely and effectively, while providing comfort measures.
  • Maintained confidentiality of all pertinent resident care information to assure their rights are protected.

9. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how certified nursing assistants use customer service:
  • Provided professional yet caring client interaction and maintained patient's rights to confidentiality while providing excellent customer service with their families.
  • Recommend improvements and changes in key performance indicators that drive customer service and overall pharmacy effectiveness.

10. Blood Pressure

Here's how certified nursing assistants use blood pressure:
  • Take patients vitals, such as temperature, blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate, record information into the computer.
  • Monitored Vitals, post-op vitals, Temp, Pulse, and Blood Pressure, take blood sugar and also lab draws.

11. Infection Control

Infection control describes the principles and practices used in hospitals and other healthcare facilities to control and minimize the spread of infections with the aim of lowering rates of infection. Infection control refers to the process of detecting and controlling pathogens in order to reduce their spread.

Here's how certified nursing assistants use infection control:
  • Maintained departmental policies and procedures while meeting daily objectives, quality assurance program, safely, environmental and infection control standards.
  • Maintained established departmental policies and procedures, objectives, quality assurance program, safety, environmental and infection control standards.

12. ADL

ADL is a clinical shorthand for "activities of daily living." It includes tasks such as feeding, dressing, bathing, and caring for one's self and personal hygiene.

Here's how certified nursing assistants use adl:
  • Provided geriatric care in a nursing home setting, assisted with ADL's, vital signs, daily documentation in residential logs
  • Care of Heart, Medical, Precaution Patients, ADL S, Transfer of Patients, Assist With Ambulation, Patient Documentation

13. Compassion

Here's how certified nursing assistants use compassion:
  • Care with compassion and dedication towards resident who needed assistance for their activity of daily living
  • Provided compassion personal patient care under direction of nursing staff in nursing home environment

14. Direct Patient Care

Here's how certified nursing assistants use direct patient care:
  • Provided direct patient care which included transportation and procedural preparation.
  • Performed direct patient care under the supervision of registered nurses

15. Catheter

Here's how certified nursing assistants use catheter:
  • Measured/documented fluid input/output; provided catheter care; collected specimens.
  • Assessed post-operative care such as catheters and intravenous feedings.
top-skills

What skills help Certified Nursing Assistants find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on certified nursing assistant resumes?

Marina Orobinskaia

Program Coordinator, Bellevue College

Experience, good program attended.

What soft skills should all certified nursing assistants possess?

Marina Orobinskaia

Program Coordinator, Bellevue College

Friendliness, positive energy, leadership.

What hard/technical skills are most important for certified nursing assistants?

Marina Orobinskaia

Program Coordinator, Bellevue College

There are no more or less important skills. You need to learn all of them to excellence and what is most important - use your critical thinking when you do them.

What certified nursing assistant skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Penny Ridenour

Dean of School of Health Sciences, Oklahoma State University - Oklahoma City

To differentiate yourself from the other new professionals entering healthcare after graduation, pay attention to the soft skills employers are looking for. Listening, empathy, and communication skills polish professional persona. Also, developing skills in resiliency will equip new professionals for a growing career in healthcare.
Do you want to know more?
Read more about what experts have to say about certified nursing assistant

List of certified nursing assistant skills to add to your resume

Certified nursing assistant skills

The most important skills for a certified nursing assistant resume and required skills for a certified nursing assistant to have include:

  • Patients
  • Vital Signs
  • Home Health
  • Rehabilitation
  • CPR
  • Quality Care
  • Care Plan
  • Resident Care
  • Customer Service
  • Blood Pressure
  • Infection Control
  • ADL
  • Compassion
  • Direct Patient Care
  • Catheter
  • Oral Hygiene
  • Patient Care
  • English Language
  • Assistive Devices
  • Senior Care
  • Patient Rooms
  • Meal Preparation
  • Skin Care
  • Bed Linens
  • Food Trays
  • Fluid Intake
  • Oral Care
  • Nail Care
  • Urinals
  • Catheter Care
  • HIPAA
  • Bedpans
  • Medication Reminders
  • Hair Care
  • Compassionate Care
  • Emotional Support
  • EKG
  • Medical Equipment
  • Physical Therapy
  • Medication Administration
  • Motion Exercises
  • Dementia Care
  • Gait Belts
  • Fresh Water
  • Hoyer
  • IV
  • Colostomy
  • Stretchers
  • Mouth Care

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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