What does a geriatric nursing assistant do?

A geriatric nursing assistant is responsible for assisting elderly patients with their daily activities in a health care institution or private household setting. Geriatric nursing assistants monitor the patients' conditions, maintain an organized record of medical charts, administer medications, and update the attending physician for any health concerns. They also guide the patients with their doctor appointments, process medical documents, and coordinate with medical staff for medical procedures and payments. A geriatric nursing assistant must have excellent communication and organizational skills to ensure high-quality care services for the patients and help them improve their lifestyle.
Geriatric nursing assistant responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real geriatric nursing assistant resumes:
- Manage memory unity within facility.
- Commend for teamwork and compassion towards the residents.
- Transport patients to the ICU or emergency department.
- Maintain CPR certificate while practicing in a healthcare facility.
- Complete other tasks such as feeding and assisting with activities of daily living (ADL).
- Perform ADL's such as feeding, bathing, dressing, toileting, and personal hygiene.
- Interact with residents/clients, families and co-workers with professionalism, confidence, trust, respect and compassion.
- Initiate basic CPR measures in the event of cardiac and/or pulmonary arrest and respond to emergency situations relate to dialysis treatment
- Care for patient with early onset Alzheimer's disease, including assisting in activities of daily living and monitoring sufficient nutritional intake
- Comfort patients and provide them with reassurance and encouragement.
- Facilitate care of daily living requirements including rehabilitation activities, dressing, feeding and bathing.
- Provide rehabilitation training for independent living, referrals for need services and service coordination with other providers.
- Initiate cardiopulmonary resuscitation in emergency situations.
- Shadow health care professionals in various departments including ICU, CTU, and ER.
- Manage memory unity within facility.
Geriatric nursing assistant skills and personality traits
We calculated that 26% of Geriatric Nursing Assistants are proficient in Patients, Rehabilitation, and Vital Signs. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Compassion, and Patience.
We break down the percentage of Geriatric Nursing Assistants that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 26%
Provided necessary health education training for patients and families.
- Rehabilitation, 12%
Provide rehabilitation training for independent living, referrals for needed services and service coordination with other providers.
- Vital Signs, 11%
Provided physical and emotional support to all Residents including administering medication, and obtaining vital signs.
- Home Health, 10%
Marketed services to local skilled nursing facilities, home health agencies and community providers.
- CPR, 10%
Qualified in CPR and First Aid.
- Medical Equipment, 4%
Assist nurses in the operation of medical equipment.
Most geriatric nursing assistants use their skills in "patients," "rehabilitation," and "vital signs" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential geriatric nursing assistant responsibilities here:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a geriatric nursing assistant to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "nursing assistants and orderlies must communicate effectively to address patients’ or residents’ concerns." Geriatric nursing assistants often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "use oral and written communication in care of older client certified training care for alzheimer patients"
Compassion. Another soft skill that's essential for fulfilling geriatric nursing assistant duties is compassion. The role rewards competence in this skill because "nursing assistants and orderlies assist and care for the sick, injured, and elderly." According to a geriatric nursing assistant resume, here's how geriatric nursing assistants can utilize compassion in their job responsibilities: "received character counts certificate for compassion. "
Patience. This is an important skill for geriatric nursing assistants to perform their duties. For an example of how geriatric nursing assistant responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "the routine tasks of cleaning, feeding, and bathing patients or residents can be stressful." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a geriatric nursing assistant: "offered residents compassion and patience while assisting them with day-to-day life tasks such as dressing, bathing and feeding. ".
Physical stamina. geriatric nursing assistant responsibilities often require "physical stamina." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "nursing assistants and orderlies spend much of their time on their feet." This resume example shows what geriatric nursing assistants do with physical stamina on a typical day: "utilized support staff consisting of home health nurses, physical therapist, occupational therapist, speech pathologist, cardiologist and nephrology. "
The three companies that hire the most geriatric nursing assistants are:
- ProMedica Toledo Hospital57 geriatric nursing assistants jobs
- IntelyCare31 geriatric nursing assistants jobs
- FutureCare Health24 geriatric nursing assistants jobs
Choose from 10+ customizable geriatric nursing assistant resume templates
Build a professional geriatric nursing assistant resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your geriatric nursing assistant resume.Compare different geriatric nursing assistants
Geriatric nursing assistant vs. Medical internship
When it comes to a medical internship, one of the primary duties is to attend to the patients' needs while under a more experienced physician's supervision. During this period, the medical interns must rotate in various fields of specialties or departments for exposure. Aside from learning and observing, there are also instances when medical interns are required to produce necessary reports and documentation, communicate with patients and families, and take part in more challenging cases.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between geriatric nursing assistants and medical internship. For instance, geriatric nursing assistant responsibilities require skills such as "rehabilitation," "home health," "medical equipment," and "quality care." Whereas a medical internship is skilled in "patient care," "surgical procedures," "surgery," and "ekg." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Medical interns tend to reach similar levels of education than geriatric nursing assistants. In fact, medical interns are 1.3% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 6.0% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Geriatric nursing assistant vs. Medical scribe
As a medical scribe, their main responsibility is to follow a physician's daily work and do charting of patient encounters in real-time by accessing their medical electronic health record (EHR). It is their duty to make sure the patient schedules are followed, generate referral letters for physicians and manage and sort medical documents within the EHR. Medical scribes can be held as data custodians, medical assistants, and nurses to focus on patient in-take and care throughout clinic hours. In addition, they manage patient flow through the clinic and increase productivity to cater to more patients.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that geriatric nursing assistant responsibilities requires skills like "rehabilitation," "home health," "cpr," and "medical equipment." But a medical scribe might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "medical terminology," "excellent organizational," "physician assistants," and "strong work ethic."
Medical scribes may earn a lower salary than geriatric nursing assistants, but medical scribes earn the most pay in the health care industry with an average salary of $29,968. On the other hand, geriatric nursing assistants receive higher pay in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $33,104.medical scribes earn similar levels of education than geriatric nursing assistants in general. They're 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 6.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Geriatric nursing assistant vs. Resident aide
A nurses' aide is responsible for providing healthcare and welfare assistance to patients in long-term care facilities while under the supervision of a registered nurse or a licensed colleague with extensive expertise. A nurses' aide is mostly involved in basic hygienic tasks, such as helping a patient in bathing and dressing, using the toilet, preparing meals, feeding, and performing basic chores. It is also vital for a nurses' aide to coordinate with supervisors, reporting any changes in a patients' condition or behavior.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, geriatric nursing assistants are more likely to have skills like "rehabilitation," "home health," "medical equipment," and "nursing home." But a resident aide is more likely to have skills like "assist residents," "resident care," "meal prep," and "incontinence care."
Resident aides make a very good living in the health care industry with an average annual salary of $25,893. On the other hand, geriatric nursing assistants are paid the highest salary in the health care industry, with average annual pay of $33,104.resident aides typically earn similar educational levels compared to geriatric nursing assistants. Specifically, they're 3.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Geriatric nursing assistant vs. Nurses' aide
Even though a few skill sets overlap between geriatric nursing assistants and nurses' aides, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a geriatric nursing assistant might have more use for skills like "nursing home," "punctuality," "adaptive equipment," and "compassionate care." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of nurses' aides require skills like "electrocardiogram," "english language," "resident care," and "customer service. "
In general, nurses' aides earn the most working in the health care industry, with an average salary of $30,130. The highest-paying industry for a geriatric nursing assistant is the health care industry.In general, nurses' aides hold similar degree levels compared to geriatric nursing assistants. Nurses' aides are 2.4% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.4% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of geriatric nursing assistant
Updated January 8, 2025











